Cross-language evidence for three factors in speech perception

A continuing controversy concerns whether speech perception can be best explained by single-factor psychoacoustic models, single-factor specialized linguistic models, or dual-factor models including both phonetic and psychoacoustic processes. However, our recent cross-language speech perception research has provided data suggesting that a three-factor model, including auditory, phonetic, and phonemic processing, may be necessary to accommodate existing findings. In the present article, we report the findings from three experiments designed to determine whether three separate processing factors are used in speech perception. In these experiments, English and Hindi subjects were tested in a same-different (AX) discrimination procedure. The duration of the interstimulus interval, the number of trials, and the experimental context were manipulated when testing the English-speaking subjects. The combined results from the three experiments provide support for the existence of three distinct speech-perception factors.

[1]  Richard E. Pastore,et al.  Common-Factor Model of Categorical Perception. , 1977 .

[2]  A M Liberman,et al.  Perception of the speech code. , 1967, Psychological review.

[3]  D B Pisoni,et al.  Some effects of laboratory training on identification and discrimination of voicing contrasts in stop consonants. , 1982, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[4]  P D Eimas,et al.  Contextual effects in infant speech perception. , 1980, Science.

[5]  D. Pisoni,et al.  Reaction times to comparisons within and across phonetic categories , 1974, Perception & psychophysics.

[6]  A. Liberman,et al.  Some effects of later-occurring information on the perception of stop consonant and semivowel , 1979, Perception & psychophysics.

[7]  P. Kuhl,et al.  Enhanced discriminability at the phonetic boundaries for the place feature in macaques. , 1983, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[8]  J. Werker,et al.  Perceptual flexibility: maintenance or recovery of the ability to discriminate non-native speech sounds. , 1984, Canadian journal of psychology.

[9]  M E Schouten,et al.  The case against a speech mode of perception. , 1980, Acta psychologica.

[10]  W. Hays.  Statistics for the social sciences , 1973 .

[11]  M I Posner,et al.  Chronometric analysis of classification. , 1967, Psychological review.

[12]  J. Werker,et al.  Developmental aspects of cross-language speech perception. , 1981, Child development.

[13]  D. Pisoni,et al.  Categorical and noncategorical modes of speech perception along the voicing continuum. , 1974, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[14]  G. A. Miller.  The Perception of Speech. , 1951 .

[15]  R. G. Crowder,et al.  Decay of auditory memory in vowel discrimination. , 1982, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[16]  J. Werker,et al.  Phonemic and phonetic factors in adult cross-language speech perception. , 1984, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[17]  P. Howell,et al.  Some properties of auditory memory for rapid formant transitions , 1977, Memory & cognition.

[18]  J. Werker,et al.  Cross-language speech perception: Evidence for perceptual reorganization during the first year of life , 1984 .

[19]  Arthur G. Samuel,et al.  The effect of discrimination training on speech perception: Noncategorical perception , 1977 .

[20]  A comparison of the identification and discrimination of synthetic vowel and stop consonant stimuli with various acoustic properties , 1981 .

[21]  J. D. Miller,et al.  Speech perception by the chinchilla: voiced-voiceless distinction in alveolar plosive consonants , 1975, Science.

[22]  A. Liberman.  On Finding That Speech Is Special , 1982 .

[23]  D. Pisoni.  Identification and discrimination of the relative onset time of two component tones: implications for voicing perception in stops. , 1977, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[24]  D B Pisoni,et al.  Infants' discrimination of the duration of a rapid spectrum change in nonspeech signals. , 1983, Science.

[25]  D. Pisoni,et al.  Perception of the duration of rapid spectrum changes in speech and nonspeech signals , 1983, Perception & psychophysics.

[26]  N. Viemeister,et al.  Noncategorical perception of stop consonants differing in VOT. , 1977, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[27]  D. Pisoni.  Auditory and phonetic memory codes in the discrimination of consonants and vowels , 1973, Perception & psychophysics.