Reaction Time and Distinctive Features in Speech Perception

1968 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. David Chananie ◽  
Ronald S. Tikofsky
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Speech Perception ◽  
Distinctive Features

Asymmetries in the Processing of Vowel Height

2012 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 903-918 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathias Scharinger ◽  
Philip J. Monahan ◽  
William J. Idsardi
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Source Parameters ◽  
Dipole Source ◽  
Neutral Position ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Neural Representations ◽  
Memory Representations ◽  
Specific Position ◽  
Phonetic Features

Purpose Speech perception can be described as the transformation of continuous acoustic information into discrete memory representations. Therefore, research on neural representations of speech sounds is particularly important for a better understanding of this transformation. Speech perception models make specific assumptions regarding the representation of mid vowels (e.g., [ɛ]) that are articulated with a neutral position in regard to height. One hypothesis is that their representation is less specific than the representation of vowels with a more specific position (e.g., [æ]). Method In a magnetoencephalography study, we tested the underspecification of mid vowel in American English. Using a mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm, mid and low lax vowels ([ɛ]/[æ]), and high and low lax vowels ([ i ]/[æ]), were opposed, and M100/N1 dipole source parameters as well as MMN latency and amplitude were examined. Results Larger MMNs occurred when the mid vowel [ɛ] was a deviant to the standard [æ], a result consistent with less specific representations for mid vowels. MMNs of equal magnitude were elicited in the high–low comparison, consistent with more specific representations for both high and low vowels. M100 dipole locations support early vowel categorization on the basis of linguistically relevant acoustic–phonetic features. Conclusion We take our results to reflect an abstract long-term representation of vowels that do not include redundant specifications at very early stages of processing the speech signal. Moreover, the dipole locations indicate extraction of distinctive features and their mapping onto representationally faithful cortical locations (i.e., a feature map).

Some views on speech perception

1971 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Waterson
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Memory Span ◽  
Good Evidence ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Large Size ◽  
One To One ◽  
Linguistic Units ◽  
Different Parts

Speech perception is of interest to linguists and psychologists alike. Psychologists seek for linguistic units to enable them to explain processes involved in speech; linguists try to establish what these units may be, whether distinctive features, phonemes, syllables, words or even larger units. Although the phoneme was for some time considered to be the most likely candidate, experimental evidence is increasingly pointing to some larger unit, particularly in view of the fact that no one-to-one acoustic correlation with the phoneme nor with distinctive features can be found (cf. Reddy, 1967: 336, Ladefoged, 1967: 146, Denes, 1963: 892). Furthermore, if the phoneme were to be the unit of perception, in any sort of processing involving matching a perceived pattern with one already stored, far too many operations would be involved because of the large size of vocabularies and large number of sentence types in a language; such processing would have to be too rapid to be feasible, bearing in mind the constraints of memory span. There is now more sympathy for the syllable or larger stretch as the unit of perception (e.g. Laver, 1970: 68, Maclay and Osgood, 1959, Ladefoged, 1959: 402), and there seems to be good evidence for the planning of speech to be in stretches longer than a word, e.g. Ladefoged's experiments with placing ‘dot’ at different parts of a sentence (Ladefoged, 1959).

Some Aspects of the Psychological Representation of Speech Sounds

1977 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 459-471
Author(s):  
James R. Lackner ◽  
Betty Tuller ◽  
Louis M. Goldstein
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Present Experiment ◽  
Female Voice ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Feature Detector ◽  
Male Voice ◽  
Phonetic Feature ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Voice Identification

If one listens to a meaningless syllable that is repeated over and over, he will hear it undergo a variety of changes that can be described systematically in terms of reorganizations of the phones constituting the syllable and changes in a restricted set of phonetic distinctive features. When the repeated syllable is followed by a different syllable but in the same voice, the new (test) syllable will be misperceived in a manner related to the perceptual misrepresentation of the repeated syllable. In the present experiment subjects ( N = 24) listened to 72 different experimental sequences of repeated syllables in a male voice followed by test syllables in a female voice. Identification of penultimate and test syllables was independent and in no instance were the phones constituting the syllables reorganized. These results are interpreted as evidence against both auditory and phonetic feature detector theories of speech perception.

Syntactic Structure Modifies Attention during Speech Perception and Recognition

1969 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 280-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Abrams ◽  
Thomas G. Bever
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Speech Perception ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Internal Representation ◽  
Perceptual Processing ◽  
Speech Stimulus ◽  
Information Channel ◽  
Speech Stimuli ◽  
Response Task ◽  
External Stimuli

The present paper demonstrates the interaction of syntactic structure and speech perception with a response task which minimizes the effects of memory: reaction time (RT) to clicks during sentences. (1) In 12-word unfamiliar sentences each with two clauses, RT is relatively slow overall to clicks located at the end of the first clause but decreases as a function of clause length. Clicks at the beginning of the second clause are not affected by length of the preceding clause. (2) In familiar sentences, RT is relatively fast to clicks located at the end of a clause while RT to clicks at the beginning of clauses is relatively unaffected by familiarity. (3) RT is not fastest overall to clicks located between clauses either in novel or familiar sentences. (4) As in previous studies, the subject's subsequent judegment of the location of the click tone are towards the clause break. (5) We could find no systematic interaction between RT and subjective click location. Findings (1) to (3) are consistent with the view that perceptual processing alternates between attending to all external stimuli and developing an internal representation of the stimuli. Finding (3) is in conflict with an “information channel” view of immediate attention to speech, which would predict high sensory attention to non-speech stimuli between clauses. However, findings (4) and (5) indicate that the channel view of perception may be correct for that perceptual processing which occurs after the immediate organization of the speech stimulus into major segments.

scholarly journals Speech perception at the interface of neurobiology and linguistics

2007 ◽  
Vol 363 (1493) ◽  
pp. 1071-1086 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Poeppel ◽  
William J Idsardi ◽  
Virginie van Wassenhove
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Lexical Representation ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Lexical Representations ◽  
Discrete Representations ◽  
And Linguistics ◽  
Synthesis Approach

Speech perception consists of a set of computations that take continuously varying acoustic waveforms as input and generate discrete representations that make contact with the lexical representations stored in long-term memory as output. Because the perceptual objects that are recognized by the speech perception enter into subsequent linguistic computation, the format that is used for lexical representation and processing fundamentally constrains the speech perceptual processes. Consequently, theories of speech perception must, at some level, be tightly linked to theories of lexical representation. Minimally, speech perception must yield representations that smoothly and rapidly interface with stored lexical items. Adopting the perspective of Marr, we argue and provide neurobiological and psychophysical evidence for the following research programme. First, at the implementational level, speech perception is a multi-time resolution process, with perceptual analyses occurring concurrently on at least two time scales (approx. 20–80 ms, approx. 150–300 ms), commensurate with (sub)segmental and syllabic analyses, respectively. Second, at the algorithmic level, we suggest that perception proceeds on the basis of internal forward models, or uses an ‘analysis-by-synthesis’ approach. Third, at the computational level (in the sense of Marr), the theory of lexical representation that we adopt is principally informed by phonological research and assumes that words are represented in the mental lexicon in terms of sequences of discrete segments composed of distinctive features. One important goal of the research programme is to develop linking hypotheses between putative neurobiological primitives (e.g. temporal primitives) and those primitives derived from linguistic inquiry, to arrive ultimately at a biologically sensible and theoretically satisfying model of representation and computation in speech.

An Alternative for Judging Confusability of Visual Letters

1976 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Thorson
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Reaction Time Data ◽  
Practical Approach ◽  
Feature Analysis ◽  
Matching Task ◽  
Time Data ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Task Support ◽  
General Table

Numerical values for shared distinctive features were derived from Gibson's (1) feature analysis of the 26 uppercase alphabet letters. Due to the lack of agreement among the empirical matrices, it is proposed that this more general table is a useful and practical approach for judging confusability of visual letters for uppercase items. Reaction time data from a Posner-type of letter-matching task support the effectiveness of the table for judging visual confusability among uppercase letters.

Structural Organization and Distribution of Fiber Types in Extraocular Muscles of Cats

1972 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 34-35
Author(s):  
Asish C. Nag ◽  
Lee D. Peachey
Keyword(s):  
Fiber Type ◽  
Light And Electron Microscopy ◽  
Small Diameter ◽  
Extraocular Muscles ◽  
Fiber Types ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Superior Rectus ◽  
Adult Cats ◽  
Different Diameters ◽  
Orbital Region

Cat extraocular muscles consist of two regions: orbital, and global. The orbital region contains predominantly small diameter fibers, while the global region contains a variety of fibers of different diameters. The differences in ultrastructural features among these muscle fibers indicate that the extraocular muscles of cats contain at least five structurally distinguishable types of fibers.Superior rectus muscles were studied by light and electron microscopy, mapping the distribution of each fiber type with its distinctive features. A mixture of 4% paraformaldehyde and 4% glutaraldehyde was perfused through the carotid arteries of anesthetized adult cats and applied locally to exposed superior rectus muscles during the perfusion.

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