Nonlinear dynamics in speech perception

The history of research on speech perception and speech production is replete with examples of nonlinearities between articulation and acoustics, and between acoustics and perception. These nonlinearities are useful for communication. They allow 1) adequate production of speech sounds and words despite people having different vocal tracts with different resonance capabilities, and 2) adequate word recognition despite variation in the acoustic signal across speakers, emphasis, background noise, etc. Yet context and the listener’s expectancies often strongly influence what is perceived; perception is dynamic, influenced by multiple factors that change slowly or quickly as speech goes on. In this chapter we present a selected history of demonstrations of nonlinearities in speech and attempt to exploit the nonlinearities in order to uncover the dynamics of both perception and production of speech.

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