Emma Greenspon

Monmouth University · Department of Psychology

Given previous results showing that auditory imagery is associated with subvocal muscle movements related to pitch control, the present study addressed whether subvocalization of pitch is differentially involved during imagery that precedes the execution of an imagined action as compared to non-preparatory imagery. We examined subvocal activity usi...

The ability to recognize emotion in speech is a critical skill for social communication. Motivated by previous work that has shown that vocal emotion recognition accuracy varies by musical ability, the current study addressed this relationship using a behavioral measure of musical ability (i.e., singing) that relies on the same effector system used...

In the process of acquiring musical skills, such as playing the piano, we develop sensorimotor associations between motor movements and perception of pitch. Previous research suggests that these acquired associations are relatively inflexible and show limited generalizability to performance under novel conditions. The current study investigated whe...

Individuals typically produce auditory sequences, such as speech or music, at a consistent spontaneous rate or tempo. We addressed whether spontaneous rates would show patterns of convergence across the domains of music and language production when the same participants spoke sentences and performed melodic phrases on a piano. Although timing plays...

Most people can recognize and perform a musical piece under a variety of transformations such as altering the key or varying the tempo. However, we also know that other mental transformations of music can be difficult to generate and to recognize. Two factors that might affect this mental flexibility are the familiarity of the piece and musical abi...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2019.00390.].

Phonological awareness skills in children with reading difficulty (RD) may reflect impaired automatic integration of orthographic and phonological representations. However, little is known about the underlying neural mechanisms involved in phonological awareness for children with RD. Eighteen children with RD, ages 9–13, participated in a functiona...

Vocal imitation guides both music and language development. Despite the developmental significance of this behavior, a sizable minority of individuals are inaccurate at vocal pitch imitation. Although previous research suggested that inaccurate pitch imitation results from deficient sensorimotor associations between pitch perception and vocal motor...

PREVIOUS RESEARCH SUGGESTS THAT INDIVIDUALS with a Vocal Pitch Imitation Deficit (VPID, a.k.a. ‘‘poorpitch singers’’) experience less vivid auditory images than accurate imitators (Pfordresher & Halpern, 2013), based on self-report. In the present research we sought to test this proposal directly by having accurate and VPID imitators produce or rec...

We propose a new framework to understand singing accuracy, based on multi-modal imagery associations: the MMIA model. This model is based on recent data suggesting a link between auditory imagery and singing accuracy, evidence for a link between imagery and the functioning of internal models for sensorimotor associations, and the use of imagery in...

Holistic processing has been associated with perceptual expertise in different domains involving faces, cars, fingerprints, musical notes, English words, etc. Curiously Chinese characters are regarded as an exception, as indicated by reduced holistic processing found for experts with the Chinese writing system as compared with novices. We revisit t...

According to Farah's (1991) framework, recognition of different objects can be characterized by a continuum with faces at one extreme involving holistic processing, words at the other extreme involving part-based processing, and other objects somewhere in between. Face perception requires fine, subordinate-level individuation of similar objects, an...

Word stimuli in Experiment 1. (DOC)

Word stimuli in Experiment 2. (DOC)

Perceptual expertise has been studied intensively with faces and object categories involving detailed individuation. A common finding is that experience in fulfilling the task demand of fine, subordinate-level discrimination between highly similar instances is associated with the development of holistic processing. This study examines whether holis...

Enhanced holistic processing (obligatory attention to all parts of an object) has been associated with different types of perceptual expertise involving faces, cars, fingerprints, musical notes, English words, etc. Curiously Chinese characters are regarded as an exception, as indicated by the lack of holistic processing found for experts (Hsiao and...