There is considerable debate about whether the early processing of sounds depends on whether they form part of speech. Proponents of such speech specificity postulate the existence of language-dependent memory traces, which are activated in the processing of speech but not when equally complex, acoustic non-speech stimuli are processed. Here we report the existence of these traces in the human brain. We presented to Finnish subjects the Finnish phoneme prototype /e/ as the frequent stimulus, and other Finnish phoneme prototypes or a non-prototype (the Estonian prototype /õ/) as the infrequent stimulus. We found that the brain's automatic change-detection response, reflected electrically as the mismatch negativity (MMN), was enhanced when the infrequent, deviant stimulus was a prototype (the Finnish /ö/) relative to when it was a non-prototype (the Estonian /õ/). These phonemic traces, revealed by MMN, are language-specific, as /õ/ caused enhancement of MMN in Estonians. Whole-head magnetic recordings located the source of this native-language, phoneme-related response enhancement, and thus the language-specific memory traces, in the auditory cortex of the left hemisphere.

Studies using behavioral methods, such as head-turning experiments, in which children are conditioned to turn their heads toward the sound source when they detect a change in the sound, have shown that environment has an important effect on how infants perceive language 1-4 . Young infants are able to discriminate almost all phonetic contrasts, whereas older infants discriminate better between phonemes that occur in the language that they normally hear, rather than foreign-language phonemes. Here we demonstrate the development of language-specific 'memory traces' in the brains of the same group of infants between six months and one year of age.The Estonian and Finnish languages, which are closely related to each other, have very similar vowel structures 5 . For example, the vowels /e/ and /ö/, which differ only in the second-formant (F2) frequency, exist in both languages. However, only Estonian has the vowel /õ/, which is approximately between /ö/ and /o/ (Fig. 1). We used these phonemes to investigate the development of language-specific memory traces in infants. This was done by analyzing mismatch negativity (MMN), an electric brain response automatically elicited by infrequent changes (deviant stimulus) in a repetitive (standard) stimulus 6-12 . The MMN amplitude increases with an increasing acoustic difference between deviant and standard stimuli 9 . Thus, when the phoneme /e/ is the standard, the MMN amplitude should be larger when the deviant stimulus

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In this study we report on two successful replications of a five‐factor personality inventory in two non‐Indo‐European languages, Estonian and Finnish, which both belong to the group of Uralic languages. Costa and McCrae's (1985) NEO Personality Inventory was adapted to these two languages. By all relevant psychometric parameters neither developed construct differs from the original construct: the reliabilities of only 11 per cent for the Estonian and 36 per cent for the Finnish subscale were lower than those of the respective NEO‐PI scales. The factor structure of both Estonian and Finnish inventories was very close to the five‐factor structure of the NEO‐PI, accounting for 71.7 per cent and 67.0 per cent of the variance, respectively. In spite of this generally good agreement, some language‐ or culture‐dependent differences were observed. Both Estonian and Finnish women were more extroverted and conscientious than men, compared with their English‐speaking counterparts. Also, some differences exist in the need for other people's company and excitement seeking. In the Balto‐Fennic culture gregariousness appears to presuppose some emotional stability and openness and excitement seeking is conceptualized more as a tool of rescuing from anxiety, depression, and low self‐esteem. This study is considered as a step towards determination of which parts of the most popular instrument for the measurement of the Big Five personality dimensions are truly universal and which parts of it are specific to a particular language and culture.

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In personality research, trait–outcome associations are often studied by correlating scale sum scores with an outcome. For example, an association between the NEO Impulsiveness scale and body mass index (BMI) is often interpreted to pertain to underlying trait Impulsiveness. We propose that this expectation can be corroborated by testing for Spearman's theorem of indifference of indicator. Namely, an underlying trait–outcome association should not depend on the specific items (i.e. indicators) used to measure the trait. To test this theorem, we outline an indicator exclusion procedure and demonstrate its viability using a simulation design. We then apply this procedure to test personality–BMI associations for indifference of indicator in a large population‐based sample of adult Estonians (N = 2581) using self‐ratings and informant ratings obtained with the NEO Personality Inventory‐3. Our results show that the N5: Impulsiveness–BMI association mostly depends on two eating‐related items, suggesting that the trait associated with BMI may be narrower than the trait the N5: Impulsiveness scale is supposed to measure. Associations between BMI, E3: Assertiveness and C2: Order seem to pertain to the trait. In sum, testing for indifference of indicator provides a potentially useful method to clarify trait–outcome relationships. R scripts are provided that implement the indicator exclusion procedure. Copyright © 2015 European Association of Personality Psychology