Cross-language evidence for three factors in speech perception

Janet F. Werker, John S. Logan
1985 Perception & Psychophysics  
A continuing controversy concerns whether speech perception can be best explained by singlefactor 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
more » ... 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.
doi:10.3758/bf03207136 pmid:3991316 fatcat:to3vhmraundedc4btrvbyvcbtu