Exam 12: Speech Perception

Dylan and Yasmin were both born and raised in Toledo, Ohio.Dylan grew up in a monolingual household and speaks only English.Yasmin grew up in a household where English and Spanish were spoken regularly, and she is bilingual.Compare how and why Dylan and Yasmin are likely to differ in their ability to perceive phonemes.

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Question 1

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Different languages make use of different phonemes and may also have subtle differences in how they use equivalent phonemes.Young infants have the ability to discern all of these phonemes and variations.However, as we grow older we focus our attention on the phonemes used in the languages people around us speak regularly, and we lose the ability to discern other phonemes, a process called perceptual narrowing.Because Yasmin was raised in a home where two languages were regularly spoken, it is likely that she can perceive a wider range of phonemes than Dylan can.

Contrast the evidence that supports general-mechanism theories of speech perception with the evidence that supports special-mechanism theories, and give examples of at least one experiment that supports each type of theory.

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General-mechanism theories of speech perception hold that the same mechanisms that are used to process all auditory signals are used for speech perception.Holt's experiment demonstrating that hearing nonspeech sounds can influence our perceptions of speech sounds supports the general-mechanism approach.Special-mechanism theories of speech perception hold that humans have a unique neurocognitive system for speech perception besides that used for auditory perception in general.McGurk's experiment demonstrating that what we see someone else saying can override the speech sounds that we are hearing offers support to special-mechanism theories.

The phenomenon in which one phoneme affects the acoustic properties of subsequent phonemes is known as ______.

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Question 3

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Formants are the ______.

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Question 4

Maurer and Werker (2014) compared infants and adults in their perceptions of the two ways of saying the "t" sound in Hindi.Hindi speakers recognize the difference between these two sounds.To English-speaking adults, however, they both sound like "t," and the adults do not hear the difference.The researchers found that ______.

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Question 5

The developmental process whereby regularly experienced phonemes are homed in on, with simultaneous diminishing of the ability to discriminate unfamiliar phonemes, is known as ______.

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Question 6

Imagine that you are conducting research into speech perception.You have just conducted an experiment in which participants watched you saying monosyllabic sounds while the participants listened to someone else's voice over headphones.The voice they were listening to sometimes matched the sounds that you were saying, but sometimes the voice over the headphones did not match what you were saying.Your participants reported hearing the sounds that they saw you utter, even when the voice in the headphones did not match what you were actually saying.Your results provide support for a ______ theory of speech perception.

(Multiple Choice)

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Question 7

Fowler and Dekle (1991) asked participants to feel a mouth saying one set of syllables at the same time that they listened to a soundtrack playing another set.Fowler and Dekle found that participants ______.

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Question 8

Speech sounds made with restricted airflow are known as ______.

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Question 9

When you change the "a" in "pram" to the "i" in "prim," you have changed ______.

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Question 10

An illusion in which participants hear sounds that are masked by white noise, but context makes the missing sound apparent, is known as ______.

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Question 11

The ability of speakers of a language to correctly perceive boundaries between words is known as ______.

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Question 12

In an experiment, participants are shown a video of a person's mouth saying monosyllabic sounds, such as "ba," "da," and "tha." However, the audio component does not always match what the speaker's mouth was saying when the syllables were recorded.Researchers asked participants to identify the sound they heard.The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether ______.

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Question 13

The larynx is ______.

(Multiple Choice)

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Question 14

Perceptual narrowing is the process that makes it difficult for adults to learn to speak a second language without an accent.

(True/False)

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Question 15

Broca's area is an important area in speech comprehension, located in the left frontal lobe.

(True/False)

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Question 16

The general scientific principle that simpler theories should be preferred over complex theories unless there is compelling evidence to support a more complex theory leads scientists to favor ______ theories of speech perception.

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Question 17

Pasley et al.(2012) recruited patients who were soon to undergo surgery on their temporal lobes as a treatment for epilepsy or brain tumors.While outfitted with intracranial electrodes that were actively recording brain activity, the patients heard recordings of words and sentences from a variety of speakers.The researchers found that ______.

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Question 18

In the McGurk effect, when people are exposed to speech sounds that do not match the mouth movements they see in a video, they nevertheless report seeing mouth movements that are consistent with the sounds they heard.

(True/False)

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Question 19

General-mechanism theories of speech perception claim that the mechanisms for speech perception are distinct and unique relative to the mechanisms for auditory perception in general.

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Question 20

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Contrast the evidence that supports general-mechanism theories of speech perception with the evidence that supports special-mechanism theories, and give examples of at least one experiment that supports each type of theory.

The phenomenon in which one phoneme affects the acoustic properties of subsequent phonemes is known as ______.

Formants are the ______.

The developmental process whereby regularly experienced phonemes are homed in on, with simultaneous diminishing of the ability to discriminate unfamiliar phonemes, is known as ______.

Fowler and Dekle (1991) asked participants to feel a mouth saying one set of syllables at the same time that they listened to a soundtrack playing another set.Fowler and Dekle found that participants ______.

Speech sounds made with restricted airflow are known as ______.

When you change the "a" in "pram" to the "i" in "prim," you have changed ______.

An illusion in which participants hear sounds that are masked by white noise, but context makes the missing sound apparent, is known as ______.

The ability of speakers of a language to correctly perceive boundaries between words is known as ______.

The larynx is ______.

Perceptual narrowing is the process that makes it difficult for adults to learn to speak a second language without an accent.

Broca's area is an important area in speech comprehension, located in the left frontal lobe.

The general scientific principle that simpler theories should be preferred over complex theories unless there is compelling evidence to support a more complex theory leads scientists to favor ______ theories of speech perception.

In the McGurk effect, when people are exposed to speech sounds that do not match the mouth movements they see in a video, they nevertheless report seeing mouth movements that are consistent with the sounds they heard.

General-mechanism theories of speech perception claim that the mechanisms for speech perception are distinct and unique relative to the mechanisms for auditory perception in general.

What Is Perception

Research Methodology

Visual System: The Eye

Visual System: The Brain

Object Perception

Color Perception

Depth and Size Perception

Movement and Action

Visual Attention

The Auditory System

The Auditory Brain and Sound Localization

Music Perception

Touch and Pain

Olfaction and Taste

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