The relationship between perception and production remains an unresolved issue within the study of phonological acquisition. Recent developments in optimality theory offer potentially new solutions to this long-standing problem; but thus far, the proposals that have been advanced are in the absence of actual perception-production data from a given…

Previous studies have failed to demonstrate lexically induced delays in phoneme recognition, casting doubt on interactive models of speech perception. We present TRACE simulations that explain these failures: previously tested conditions failed to produce lexically induced delay effects because the input was too unambiguous and the control…

Different speakers may pronounce the same sounds very differently, yet listeners have little difficulty perceiving speech accurately. Recent research suggests that listeners adjust their preexisting phonemic categories to accommodate speakers' pronunciations ("perceptual learning"). In some cases, these adjustments appear to reflect general…

A high-amplitude sucking procedure, with synthesized female speech, was used to ascertain the effects of fundamental frequency, amplitude, and duration on discrimination of polysyllabic sequences. Results suggest that the exaggerated suprasegmentals of infant-directed speech may function as a perceptual catalyst, focusing the infant's attention on…

Previous research on speech perception in both adults and infants has supported the view that consonants are perceived categorically; that is, listeners are relatively insensitive to variation below the level of the phoneme. More recent work, on the other hand, has shown adults to be systematically sensitive to within category variation [McMurray,…

"Earobics"[R] is interactive software that provides students in pre-K through third grade with individual, systematic instruction in early literacy skills as students interact with animated characters. "Earobics[R] Foundations" is a version for pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten, and first graders. "Earobics[R]…

This study investigated the perception of voice onset time (VOT) in speech produced during simultaneous communication (SC). Four normally hearing, experienced sign language users were recorded under SC and speech alone (SA) conditions speaking stimulus words with voiced and voiceless initial consonants embedded in a sentence. Twelve…

The study investigated adaptation to a standard electropalatographic (EPG) practise palate in a group of eight adults (mean age = 24 years). The participants read the phrase "a CVC" over four sampling conditions: prior to inserting the palate, immediately following insertion of the palate, 45 minutes after palate insertion, and 3 hours after…

Purpose: Investigate training-related changes in acoustic-phonetic representation of consonants produced by a text-to-speech (TTS) computer speech synthesizer. Method: Forty-eight adult listeners were trained to better recognize words produced by a TTS system. Nine additional untrained participants served as controls. Before and after training,…

A series of experiments indicated that by 1 year of age, infants' perceptual categories correspond to linguistically significant categories. Developmental change between 6 and 12 months shows that perceptual abilities of the 1-year-old are not arbitrary, do not reflect all the discriminatory capabilities of the infant, and are similar to phonemic…

Many models of spoken word recognition posit the existence of lexical and sublexical representations, with excitatory and inhibitory mechanisms used to affect the activation levels of such representations. Bottom-up evidence provides excitatory input, and inhibition from phonetically similar representations leads to lexical competition. In such a…

We present the results from an experiment that tests the perception of English consonantal sequences by Korean speakers and we confirm that perceptual epenthesis in a second language (L2) arises from syllable structure restrictions of the first language (L1), rather than linear co-occurrence restrictions. Our study replicates and extends Dupoux,…

Phonological fusion occurs when the phonemes of two different speech stimuli are combined into a new percept that is longer and linguistically more complex than either of the two inputs. The present article is an investigation of the conditions necessary and sufficient for fusion to occur. (Editor/RK)

Research is reported which examined the effect of various factors on the frequency of phonological responses. Phonemic order and location of clusters within a syllable affected fusion. Initial stop-liquid clusters fused readily; final liquid-stop clusters rarely fused. Some subjects fused on most or all trials; others fused less frequently.…

To measure the symmetry of adult categorical phoneme perception, 10 adult male undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory psychology class were the subjects for this study as part of their course requirements. The stimuli used in this study were prepared at Haskins Laboratories by means of a parallel resonance synthesizer and computer. The…