The abstract representations in speech processing

Speech processing by human listeners derives meaning from acoustic input via intermediate steps involving abstract representations of what has been heard. Recent results from several lines of research are here brought together to shed light on the nature and role of these representations. In spoken-word recognition, representations of phonological form and of conceptual content are dissociable. This follows from the independence of patterns of priming for a word's form and its meaning. The nature of the phonological-form representations is determined not only by acoustic-phonetic input but also by other sources of information, including metalinguistic knowledge. This follows from evidence that listeners can store two forms as different without showing any evidence of being able to detect the difference in question when they listen to speech. The lexical representations are in turn separate from prelexical representations, which are also abstract in nature. This follows from evidence that perceptual learning about speaker-specific phoneme realization, induced on the basis of a few words, generalizes across the whole lexicon to inform the recognition of all words containing the same phoneme. The efficiency of human speech processing has its basis in the rapid execution of operations over abstract representations.     

Lexical viability constraints on speech segmentation by infants

The Possible Word Constraint limits the number of lexical candidates considered in speech recognition by stipulating that input should be parsed into a string of lexically viable chunks. For instance, an isolated single consonant is not a feasible word candidate. Any segmentation containing such a chunk is disfavored. Five experiments using the head-turn preference procedure investigated whether, like adults, 12-month-olds observe this constraint in word recognition. In Experiments 1 and 2, infants were familiarized with target words (e.g., rush), then tested on lists of nonsense items containing these words in "possible" (e.g., "niprush" [nip+rush]) or "impossible" positions (e.g., "prush" [p+rush]). The infants listened significantly longer to targets in "possible" versus "impossible" contexts when targets occurred at the end of nonsense items (rush in "prush"), but not when they occurred at the beginning (tan in "tance"). In Experiments 3 and 4, 12-month-olds were similarly familiarized with target words, but test items were real words in sentential contexts (win in "wind" versus "window"). The infants listened significantly longer to words in the "possible" condition regardless of target location. Experiment 5 with targets at the beginning of isolated real words (e.g., win in "wind") replicated Experiment 2 in showing no evidence of viability effects in beginning position. Taken together, the findings suggest that, in situations in which 12-month-olds are required to rely on their word segmentation abilities, they give evidence of observing lexical viability constraints in the way that they parse fluent speech.     

The Primary Processes: A Preliminary Exploration of A-Rational Mentation from an Evolutionary Viewpoint

In this article we investigate research on nonhuman animal cognition revealing the predominance of primary processes-like operations that are effective and adaptive from an evolutionary perspective. But first and from a different direction, we review a body of recently popular empirical work on human heuristics and biases that proposes System 1 and System 2 as a dual-process model of cognition and emotion; this without acknowledging Freud’s primary and secondary processes. Thus, we explore the parallels between primary process and System 1, as we evaluate the case for the evolutionary nature of primary process. We guide the reader through literature on animal cognition and that of System 1 biases and heuristics to provide the psychoanalytic reader with the opportunity to make important links to psychoanalytic concepts.     

Finding words in a language that allows words without vowels

Across many languages from unrelated families, spoken-word recognition is subject to a constraint whereby potential word candidates must contain a vowel. This constraint minimizes competition from embedded words (e.g., in English, disfavoring win in twin because t cannot be a word). However, the constraint would be counter-productive in certain languages that allow stand-alone vowelless open-class words. One such language is Berber (where t is indeed a word). Berber listeners here detected words affixed to nonsense contexts with or without vowels. Length effects seen in other languages replicated in Berber, but in contrast to prior findings, word detection was not hindered by vowelless contexts. When words can be vowelless, otherwise universal constraints disfavoring vowelless words do not feature in spoken-word recognition.     

Exploring the role of lexical stress in lexical recognition

Three cross-modal priming experiments examined the role of suprasegmental information in the processing of spoken words. All primes consisted of truncated spoken Dutch words. Recognition of visually presented word targets was facilitated by prior auditory presentation of the first two syllables of the same words as primes, but only if they were appropriately stressed (e.g., OKTOBER preceded by okTO-); inappropriate stress, compatible with another word (e.g., OKTOBER preceded by OCto-, the beginning of octopus), produced inhibition. Monosyllabic fragments (e.g., OC-) also produced facilitation when appropriately stressed; if inappropriately stressed, they produced neither facilitation nor inhibition. The bisyllabic fragments that were compatible with only one word produced facilitation to semantically associated words, but inappropriate stress caused no inhibition of associates. The results are explained within a model of spoken-word recognition involving competition between simultaneously activated phonological representations followed by activation of separate conceptual representations for strongly supported lexical candidates; at the level of the phonological representations, activation is modulated by both segmental and suprasegmental information.     

Book reviews

Hansel, C . E. M. ESP and Parapsychology: A Critical Re-Evaluation. Buffalo: Prometheus Books. 1980. Pp. 325. Hardback 415.95; paperback £7.95. ISBN 0 87975 119 3.

Marks, D. and Kamman, R. The Psychology of the Psychic. Buffalo: Prometheus Books. 1980. Pp. 232. Hardback £16.95; paperback 48.95. ISBN 0 87975 121 5.

Atkin, R. Multidimensional Men. Harmondsworth: Penguin. 1981. £2.95. ISBN o 14 005478 2.

Frith, U. (Ed.). Cognitive Processes in Spelling. London: Academic Press. 1980. Pp. 560. £17.00. ISBN 0 12 268660 8.

Herron, J. (Ed.). Neuropsychology of Left-Handedness. Perspectives in Neurolinguistics and Psycholinguistics. London: Academic Press. 1980. Pp. xiv+357. £13.50. ISBN 0 12 343150 6.

Welford, A. T. (Ed.). Reaction Times. London: Academic Press. 1980. Pp. ix+418. £27-80. ISBN 0 12 742880 1.

Anderson, J. R. Cognitive Psychology and its Implications. San Francisco: Freeman. 1980. Pp. xviii+503. £8.10.

Bolton, N. (Ed.). Philosophical Problems in Psychology. London: Methuen. 1979. £8.50. Pp. xiii+207. ISBN 0 416 70980 X.