This study compares the role of exemplars in native and non-native listening. Two English identity priming experiments were conducted with native English, Dutch non-native, and Spanish non-native listeners. In Experiment 1, primes and targets were spoken in the same or a different voice. Only the native listeners showed exemplar effects. In Experiment 2, primes and targets had the same or a different degree of vowel reduction. The Dutch, but not the Spanish, listeners were familiar with this reduction pattern from their L1 phonology. In this experiment, exemplar effects only arose for the Spanish listeners. We propose that in these lexical decision experiments the use of exemplars is co-determined by listeners’ available processing resources, which is modulated by the familiarity with the variation type from their L1 phonology. The use of exemplars differs between native and non-native listening, suggesting qualitative differences between native and non-native speech comprehension processes.

This article reports findings on the effects of processing resources and learning context on the perceptual learning of lexical pitch accent in beginning nonnative Japanese learners. Native English speakers in at-home and study-abroad contexts were tested twice during a semester of Japanese study on their ability to judge the correctness of and categorize nouns by their pitch pattern. Regression analyses indicated that the ability to store nonnative-like sound sequences in phonological short-term memory (PSTM), as well as auditory processing ability, predicted a significant degree of perceptual gains made over a 12-week interval. However, these predictors were task specific in that PSTM capacity predicted correctness judgment gains, while auditory processing accounted for variation in categorization. Furthermore, despite learners in the at-home context performing slightly better overall, processing resources adhered to the same predictive pattern when context was taken into account. The results suggest that (a) neither increased input during study-abroad nor targeted instruction is sufficient for most learners to acquire lexical accent; (b) processing resources support the acquisition of lexical prosody, but these may depend on how learning is assessed; and (c) PSTM operates across learning contexts, suggesting it to be a domain-general capacity in early-stage nonnative language acquisition.

The present review focuses on the utility of the amplitude of P3 of as a measure of processing capacity and mental workload. The paper starts with a brief outline of the conceptual framework underlying the relationship between P3 amplitude and task demands, and the cognitive task manipulations that determine demands on capacity. P3 amplitude results are then discussed on the basis of an extensive review of the relevant literature. It is concluded that although it has often been assumed that P3 amplitude depends on the capacity for processing task relevant stimuli, the utility of P3 amplitude as a sensitive and diagnostic measure of processing capacity remains limited. The major factor that prompts this conclusion is that the two principal task variables that have been used to manipulate capacity allocation, namely task difficulty and task emphasis, have opposite effects on the amplitude of P3. I suggest that this is because, in many tasks, an increase in difficulty transforms the structure or actual content of the flow of information in the processing systems, thereby interfering with the very processes that underlie P3 generation. Finally, in an attempt to theoretically integrate the results of the reviewed studies, it is proposed that P3 amplitude reflects activation of elements in a event-categorization network that is controlled by the joint operation of attention and working memory.

The deception literature has predominantly focused on detection of guilty individuals using electrodermal measures. Little research has examined other psychophysiological measures or the mechanisms underlying deception. Therefore, the present study examined pupillary responses in a differentiation-of-deception paradigm. Twenty-four undergraduate participants answered the same questions twice, once truthfully and once deceptively, while pupillary responses were recorded. Questions were based on recently learned (episodic) information from scenarios or on general (semantic) knowledge from long-term memory. Task-evoked pupil dilation was significantly greater when participants confabulated responses than when they told the truth for both episodic and semantic memory questions. Previous research has demonstrated that pupil size increases with increased cognitive processing load. The present study suggested that generating deceptive recall was associated with increased pupil size and required greater cognitive processing than truthful recall.

Task-evoked pupillary responses were recorded during a visual backward masking task as an index of resource allocation. Increased pupillary dilation indicates increased allocation of processing resources to the task. Consistent with numerous studies, detection accuracy increased with longer interstimulus intervals and approximated no-mask accuracy in the 300-ms condition. Pupillary dilation responses were significantly greater during task performance (cognitive load) than during a passive stimulus viewing condition (no-load) and were significantly greater in the 300-ms condition than the no-mask condition. Consistent with models of early visual information processing, the results suggest that the mask demanded extra processing resources when it followed the target by more than 100 ms. Pupillography methods may be useful in evaluating the contribution and timing of resource-demanding processes during early visual information processing.

The effect of attention allocation on smooth pursuit eye movements (SPEM) was investigated. Eye movements were electrooculographically recorded in 27 healthy subjects who tracked a visual target that moved horizontally with constant or unpredictably varying velocity. In some trials, subjects performed additional auditory discrimination tasks varying in difficulty. Pursuit error decreased when attention was divided between both tasks. The pattern of results is incompatible with the assumption made in previous research that attention enhancement improves SPEM accuracy. Rather, ocular smooth pursuit appears to be executed in the automatic mode, although intentional and selective processes must contribute. Moreover, controlled attention directed to the tracking task interfered with smooth pursuit. A reinterpretation of earlier studies in which visual monitoring tasks were used to improve eye tracking is needed.