• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.1-15
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of visual block (eyes open or closed), mental task type, and participation in an exercise program on static balance in the elderly. The subjects were 34 elderly (>65 years old) residents of a social welfare institute in Gyeonggi-do. We measured the following variables. Berg balance scale, mini mental state examination, balance performance monitor (sway area, path, and maximal sway velocity), age, weight, height and whether the subject participated in an exercise program. Scores for the Berg balance scale and mini mental state examination were evaluated to assess static balance ability either alone (single task paradigm) or while performing a mental task (dual task paradigm). Static balance variables that were measured included sway area, path, and maximal sway velocity. Each test was repeated three times. Multiple regressions analysis was used to examine the effect of each variable on static balance ability. For the dual task paradigm, static balance was affected by whether the subject participated in an exercise program. The Berg balance scale score for subjects with their eyes open was affected by whether they participated in an exercise program, while this variable in addition to the height and weight of subjects were determining variables in subjects with their eyes closed. As a result, whether subjects participated in an exercise program affected their static balance irrespective of whether their eyes open or closed. Therefore, regular exercise is recommended for elderly people and further research is needed to examine the relationship between static and dynamic balance while performing mental tasks such as cognition and attention.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.11-16
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• 2023

The present study examines how a cognitive attention affects Korean learners of English (L2) in perceiving the English stop voicing distinction (/d/-/t/). This study tested the effect of attentional distractor on primary and non-primary acoustic cues, focusing on the role of Voice Onset Time (VOT) and fundamental frequency (F0). Using the dual-task paradigm, 28 Korean adult learners of English participated in the stop identification task carried with (distractor) and without (no-distractor) arithmetic calculation. Results showed that when distracted, Korean learners' sensitivity to VOT decreased as priorly reported with native English speakers. Furthermore, as F0 is a primary cue for a L1 Korean stop laryngeal contrast, its role in L2 English voicing distinction was also affected by a distractor, without compensating for the reduced VOT sensitivity. These findings suggest that flexible use of multiple cues in L1 is not necessarily beneficial for L2 phonological processing when coping with a adverse listening condition.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.47-52
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• 2014

This study investigated how the degree of attention modulates English learners' perception of Korean stop contrasts. The contributions of VOT and F0 in perceiving Korean stops were examined while availability of attentional resources was manipulated using a dual-task paradigm. Results demonstrated the attentional modulation in the use of VOT, but not in F0: under less attention, the contribution of VOT to the perception of aspirated stops decreased, whereas that of lenis stops increased, which suggests more native-like performance. This implies that the role of attention in perceiving non-native contrasts might differ depending on how equivalent the acoustic and perceptual cues are between L1 and target L2 contrasts.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.155-174
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• 2005

Oh and Kim (2004) and Woodman and Lurk (2004) demonstrated that spatial working memory (SWM) load Interfered concurrent visual search and that search process also impaired the maintenance of spatial information implying that visual search and SWM task both require access to the same limited-capacity mechanism. Two obvious possibilities have been suggested about what this shared limited-capacity mechanism is: common demand for attention to the locations where the items f9r the two tasks were presented (spatial attention load hypothesis), and common use of working memory to maintain a record of locations have been processed(SWM load hypothesis). To test these two hypothetical explanations, Experiment 1 replicated the mutual interference between visual search and SWM task in spite of difference of procedure with preceding researches; possible areas where the items for two tasks were presented were not separated. In Experiment 2, we presented the items for visual search either in the same quadrants where the items for SWM task had appeared (same-location rendition) or in the different quadrants (different-location condition). As a result, search efficiency was more impaired in the different-location condition than in the same-location condition. The memory accuracy was worse in the different-location rendition than in the same-location rendition. Overall results of study indicate that the mutual interference between SWM and visual search might be related to the overload of spatial attention, but not to that of SWM.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.243-274
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• 2009

The association, word frequency and imagery have been considered as the main factors that affect the word recognition. The present study aimed to examine the imagery effect and the interaction of the association effect while controlling the frequency effect. To explain the imagery effect, we compared the two theories (dual-coding theory, context availability model). The lexical decision task using priming paradigm was administered. The duration of prime words was manipulated as 20ms, 50ms, and 450ms in experiments 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The association and imagery of prime words were manipulated as the main factors in each of the three experiments. In experiment 1, the duration of prime words (20ms) which is expected to not activate the semantic context enough to affects the word recognition was used. As a result, only imagery effect was statically significant. In experiment 2, the duration of prime word was 50ms, which we expected to activate the semantic context without perceptual awareness. The result showed both the association and imagery effects. The interaction between the two effects was also significant. In experiment 3, to activate the semantic context with perceptual awareness, the prime words were presented for 450ms. Only association effect was statically significant in this experimental condition. The results of the three experiments suggest that the influence of the imagery was at the early stages of word recognition, while the association effect appeared rather later than the imagery. These results implied that the two theories are not contrary to each other. The dual-coding theory just concerned imagery effect which affects the early stage of word recognition, and context-availability model is more for the semantic context effect which affects rather later stage of word recognition. To explain the word recognition process more completely, some integrated model need to be developed considering not only the main 3 effects but also the stages which extends along the time course of the process.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.133-171
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• 2013

The gist of a scene can be identified in less than 100msec, and violation in the gist can influence the way to allocate attention to the parts of a scene. In other words, people tend to allocate more attention to the object(s) inconsistent with the gist of a scene and to have better memory of them. To investigate the effects of contextual consistency on the attention allocation and object memory, two experiments were conducted. In both experiments, a $3{\times}2$ factorial design was used with scene presentation time(2s, 5s, and 10s) as a between-subject factor and object-background contextual consistency(consistent, inconsistent) as a within-subject factor. In Experiment 1, eye movements were recorded while the participants viewed line-drawing scenes. The results showed that the eye movement patterns were different according to whether the scenes were consistent or not. Context-inconsistent objects showed faster initial fixation indices, longer fixation times, more frequent returns than context-consistent ones. These results are entirely consistent with those of previous studies. If an object is identified as inconsistent with the gist of a scene, it attracts attention. Furthermore, the inconsistent objects and their locations in the scenes were recalled better than the consistent ones and their locations. Experiment 2 was the same as Experiment 1 except that a dual-task paradigm was used to reduce the amount of attention to allocate to the objects. Participants had to detect the positions of the probe occurring every second while they viewed the scenes. Nonetheless, the result patterns were the same as in Experiment 1. Even when the amount of attention to allocate to the scene contents was reduced, the same effects of contextual inconsistency were observed. These results indicate that the object-background contextual consistency has a strong influence on the way of allocating attention and the memory of objects in a scene.