Problem 9

Question 1

Acoustic signal

Answer 1

Refers to the patterns of pressure changes in the air

–> created by air that is pushed from the lungs past vocal cords and into the vocal tract

Question 2

Articulators

Answer 2

Structures including the

a) tongue
b) lips
c) teeth
d) jaw
e) soft palate

–> movement of theses structures alters the shape of the vocal tract

Question 3

Vowels

Answer 3

Vowels are produced by the vibration of the vocal cords

• -> some vowels have more than one pronunciation
• -> there are more vowel sounds than letters !

ex.: “e” sounds different in “head” and “heed”

Question 4

Formants

Answer 4

Frequency peaks due to resonance of the vocal tract

• -> our voice produces an infinite number of formants
• -> formants 1+2 are responsible for vowel sounds
• -> each vowel sound has a characteristic series of formants

Question 5

Sound spectrogram

Answer 5

Indicates the pattern of frequencies and intensities over time that make up the acoustic signal

Question 6

How are consonants produced ?

Answer 6

Consonants are produced by a constriction or closing of the vocal tract

Question 7

Formant transitions

Answer 7

Refer tp rapid shifts in frequency preceding or following formants

–> associated with consonants

ex: “read”

Question 8

Phoneme

Answer 8

Refers to the shortest segment of speech that, if changed, would change the meaning of a word

–> are defined in therms of the sounds that are used to create words in a specific language

Question 9

Coarticulation

Answer 9

The fact that the pronunciation of a sound in a word is affected by the sounds before and after it

ex.: “boot” vs “bat”

–> even though “b” is the same in both words, one articulates each differently

Question 10

Why is coarticulation an example for perceptual constancy ?

Answer 10

Because be perceive the sound of a phoneme as the same even though the acoustic signal is changed by coarticulation

Question 11

Why might different speakers have different acoustic signals for the same phoneme or word ?

Answer 11

a) slow or fast speech
b) high or low pitched voice
c) sloppy pronunciation

• -> all of these variabilities are reflected in spectrograms
• -> listeners must transform this info into familiar words

Question 12

Categorical perception

Answer 12

Occurs when stimuli that exist along a continuum are perceived as divided into discrete categories

Question 13

Voice onset time

VOT

Answer 13

Refers to the time delay between when a sound begins and when the vocal cords begin vibrating

–> property that helps us divide phonemes into discrete categories

Question 14

Phonetic boundary

Answer 14

The point along the continuum in which the perception of speech sound changes from one category to another.

–> ex.: change form “da” to “ta”

Question 15

Why is phonetic boundary an example of perceptual constancy ?

Answer 15

Because all the stimuli on the same side of the phonetic boundary are perceived as the same category

–> this simplifies our perception of phonemes

Question 16

Why is our speech perception “multimodal” ?

Answer 16

Because it can be influenced by information from a number of different senses

Question 17

McGurk effect/

Audiovisual speech perception

Answer 17

Although auditory information is the major source of information for speech perception, visual information can also exert a strong influence on what we hear

Question 18

Which cortical areas are activated when perceiving speech ?

Answer 18

Auditory cortex: lipreading

Superior temporal sulcus: Speech perception

Question 19

Phonemic restoration effect

Answer 19

Under certain conditions, sounds actually missing from a speech signal can be restored by the brain and may appear to be heard

• -> meaningfulness makes it easier to perceive words
• -> knowledge of grammar enhances effect

Question 20

Speech segmentation

Answer 20

Perception of individual words in a conversation

–> meaning + prior knowledge are responsible for organizing sounds

Question 21

Transitional probabilities

Answer 21

Describe the chances that one sound will follow another sound

Question 22

Statistical learning

Answer 22

The process of learning about transitional probabilities + about other characteristics of language

Question 23

Indexical Characteristics

Answer 23

Taking in characteristics of the speakers voice

–> carries information about the speakers

a) gender
b) age
c) place of origin
d) emotional state
e) being sarcastic or serious

Question 24

Aphasia

Answer 24

Inability (or impaired ability) to understand or produce speech, as a result of brain damage

Question 25

Brocas aphasia

Answer 25

Labored + stilted speech
–> only able to speak in short sentences

BUT: still capable of comprehension

Question 26

Wernickes aphasia

Answer 26

1. Extremely disorganized + meaningless speech
2. Difficulty understanding what others say

BUT: fluent speech

Question 27

Motor theory of speech perception

Answer 27

1. Hearing a particular speech sound activates motor mechanisms controlling the movement of the articulators
2. Activation of these motor mechanisms activates additional mechanisms that enable us to perceive the sound

Question 28

Dual streams model

Answer 28

We use the ventral + dorsal pathways to perceive sounds

ventral –> gives a sound a meaning
dorsal –> sounds into movement