https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA157550.pdf

The TRACE model of speech perception.

The language environment modifies the speech perception abilities found in early development. In particular, adults have difficulty perceiving many nonnative contrasts that young infants discriminate. The underlying perceptual reorganization apparently occurs by 10-12 months. According to one view, it depends on experiential effects on psychoacoustic mechanisms. Alternatively, phonological development has been held responsible, with perception influenced by whether the nonnative sounds occur allophonically in the native language. We hypothesized that a phonemic process appears around 10-12 months that assimilates speech sounds to native categories whenever possible; otherwise, they are perceived in auditory or phonetic (articulatory) terms. We tested this with English-speaking listeners by using Zulu click contrasts. Adults discriminated the click contrasts; performance on the most difficult (80% correct) was not diminished even when the most obvious acoustic difference was eliminated. Infants showed good discrimination of the acoustically modified contrast even by 12-14 months. Together with earlier reports of developmental change in perception of nonnative contrasts, these findings support a phonological explanation of language-specific reorganization in speech perception.

Examination of perceptual reorganization for nonnative speech contrasts: Zulu click discrimination by English-speaking adults and infants.

This book is about the processing of information in face-to-face communication when a speaker makes both audible and visible information available to a perceiver. Both auditory and visual sources of information are evaluated and integrated to achieve speech perception. The evaluation of the information source provides information about the strength of alternative interpretations, rather than just all-or-none categorical information, as claimed by “categorical perception” theory. Information sources are evaluated independently; the integration process insures that the least ambiguous sources have the most influences on the judgment. Similar processes occur in a variety of other behaviors, ranging from personality judgments and categorization to sentence interpretation and decision making. The experimental results are consistent with a fuzzy logical model of perception, positing three operations in perceptual (primary) recognition: feature evaluation, feature integration, and pattern classification. Continuously valued features are first evaluated, then integrated and matched against prototype descriptions in memory; finally, an identification decision is made on the basis of the relative goodness-of-match of the stimulus information with the relevant prototype descriptions.

Speech Perception By Ear and Eye: A Paradigm for Psychological Inquiry

When we hear words from an unfamiliar language spoken by a native of that language, we often have difficulty perceiving the phonetic differences among contrasting consonant (or vowel) sounds that are not distinct phonemes in our own language. Of course, we experience no difficulty with phones that are very similar to our own native phonemes. Very young infants, however, discriminate not only the segmental contrasts of their native language, but many nonnative contrasts as well, as yet apparently unfettered by the phonological constraints of their

The emergence of native-language phonological influences in infants: A perceptual assimilation model.

Memory is fleeting. New material rapidly obliterates previous material. How, then, can the brain deal successfully with the continual deluge of linguistic input? We argue that, to deal with this "Now-or-Never" bottleneck, the brain must compress and recode linguistic input as rapidly as possible. This observation has strong implications for the nature of language processing: (1) the language system must "eagerly" recode and compress linguistic input; (2) as the bottleneck recurs at each new representational level, the language system must build a multilevel linguistic representation; and (3) the language system must deploy all available information predictively to ensure that local linguistic ambiguities are dealt with "Right-First-Time"; once the original input is lost, there is no way for the language system to recover. This is "Chunk-and-Pass" processing. Similarly, language learning must also occur in the here and now, which implies that language acquisition is learning to process, rather than inducing, a grammar. Moreover, this perspective provides a cognitive foundation for grammaticalization and other aspects of language change. Chunk-and-Pass processing also helps explain a variety of core properties of language, including its multilevel representational structure and duality of patterning. This approach promises to create a direct relationship between psycholinguistics and linguistic theory. More generally, we outline a framework within which to integrate often disconnected inquiries into language processing, language acquisition, and language change and evolution.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0140525X1500031X

The Now-or-Never bottleneck: A fundamental constraint on language.

Native speakers of English identified and then discriminated between stimuli which varied in voice onset time (VOT). One group of listeners identified a randomized sequence of stimuli; another group identified an ordered sequence of stimuli, in which stimuli from the VOT continuum were presented in a consecutive order. Half of the Ss in each group then received one of two discrimination formats: the ABX discrimination test in which X was identified with A or with B, or 4IAX test of paired similarity in which two pairs of stimuli—one pair always the same and one pair always different—were presented on each trial. Noncategorical perception of the voicing distinction, reflected by an improvement in discrimination within phonetic categories, was obtained for the group of listeners who experienced both the sequential identification procedure and the 4IAX discrimination test. The results are interpreted as providing evidence for separate auditory and phonetic levels of discrimination in speech perception.

/pdf/categorical-and-noncategorical-modes-of-speech-perception-41bwch6wuh.pdf

Categorical and noncategorical modes of speech perception along the voicing continuum

Synthetic stop consonants varying in voice onset time (VOT) are generally perceived in a categorical mode. Listeners can discriminate two sounds only to the extent that the stimuli have been categorized as different phonetic segments. In the present study, native speakers of English were required to first identify and then discriminate stimuli which varied in VOT from /ba/ to /pa/. One group of listeners took a randomized absolute identification test, whereas another group took a sequential identification test. In the latter condition, stimuli along the continuum were presented in consecutive order. Half of the subjects in each group then took either an ABX discrimination test or a 41AX test. In the 41AX test, two pairs of sounds were presented on each trial. One pair was always the same and one pair was always different. Subjects were required to judge which pair was the same, the first or second. Noncategorical perception of the voicing distinction was obtained only for the group of listeners who received both the sequential identification test and the 41AX discrimination procedure. These findings suggest separate auditory and phonetic levels of processing in speech discrimination.

Joan House Lazarus

Papers

Categorical and noncategorical modes of speech perception along the voicing continuum

Categorical and Noncategorical Modes of Speech Perception along the Voice Onset Time Continuum