Speech Perception Flashcards
Define
Acoustic signal
noises that animals produce in response to a specific stimulus or situation, and that have a specific meaning
Define
Aphasias
an impairment of language, affecting the production or comprehension of speech and the ability to read or write
Define
Articulator
any of the vocal organs above the larynx, including the tongue, lips, teeth, and hard palate
Define
Audiovisual speech perception
visual information from a talker’s face during mouth articulation is available before the onset of the corresponding audio speech, and thereby allows the perceiver to use visual information to predict the upcoming audio
Define
Broca’s aphasia
a type of aphasia characterized by partial loss of the ability to produce language (spoken, manual, or written), although comprehension generally remains intact
Define
Broca’s area
a region in the frontal lobe of the dominant hemisphere, usually the left, of the brain with functions linked to speech production
Define
Categorical perception
a phenomenon of perception of distinct categories when there is a gradual change in a variable along a continuum. It was originally observed for auditory stimuli but now found to be applicable to other perceptual modalities
Define
Coarticulation
the articulation of two or more speech sounds together, so that one influences the other
Define
Formant transitions
The rapid change in frequency of a formant for a vowel immediately before or after a consonant
Define
Formants
a concentration of acoustic energy around a particular frequency in the speech wave
Define
Manner of articulation
the configuration and interaction of the articulators (speech organs such as the tongue, lips, and palate) when making a speech sound
Define
McGurk effect
a perceptual phenomenon that demonstrates an interaction between hearing and vision in speech perception
Define
Motor theory of speech perception
the hypothesis that people perceive spoken words by identifying the vocal tract gestures with which they are pronounced rather than by identifying the sound patterns that speech generates.
Define
Multimodal
characterized by several different modes of activity or occurrence
Define
Noise-vocoded speech
conveying phonetic information primarily through temporal-envelope cues rather than spectral cues
Define
Phoneme
any of the perceptually distinct units of sound in a specified language that distinguish one word from another, for example p, b, d, and t in the English words pad, pat, bad, and bat.
Define
Phonemic restoration effect
a perceptual phenomenon where under certain conditions, sounds actually missing from a speech signal can be restored by the brain and may appear to be heard
Define
Place of articulation
the point of contact where an obstruction occurs in the vocal tract between an articulatory gesture, an active articulator (typically some part of the tongue), and a passive location (typically some part of the roof of the mouth)
Define
Shadowing
an experimental technique in which subjects repeat speech immediately after hearing it
Define
Social gating hypothesis
suggests that social interaction creates an optimal learning environment for infants, an environment that introduces learning through social context.
Define
Sound spectrogram
a visual representation of the spectrum of frequencies of a signal as it varies with time
Define
Speech segmentation
the process of identifying the boundaries between words, syllables, or phonemes in spoken natural languages
Define
Statistical learning
the ability for humans and other animals to extract statistical regularities from the world around them to learn about the environment
Define
Transitional probabilities
a term primarily used in mathematics and is used to describe actions and reactions to what is called the “Markov Chain.”
Define
Voice onset time (VOT)
a feature of the production of stop consonants. It is defined as the length of time that passes between the release of a stop consonant and the onset of voicing, the vibration of the vocal folds, or, according to other authors, periodicity
Define
Wernicke’s aphasia
a type of aphasia in which individuals have difficulty understanding written and spoken language
Define
Wernicke’s area
a region of the brain concerned with the comprehension of language, located in the cortex of the dominant temporal lobe
Define
Word deafness
inability to comprehend the meanings of words though they are heard, caused by lesions of the auditory center of the brain
Definition
noises that animals produce in response to a specific stimulus or situation, and that have a specific meaning
Acoustic signal
Definition
an impairment of language, affecting the production or comprehension of speech and the ability to read or write
Aphasias
Definition
any of the vocal organs above the larynx, including the tongue, lips, teeth, and hard palate
Articulator
Definition
visual information from a talker’s face during mouth articulation is available before the onset of the corresponding audio speech, and thereby allows the perceiver to use visual information to predict the upcoming audio
Audiovisual speech perception
Definition
a type of aphasia characterized by partial loss of the ability to produce language (spoken, manual, or written), although comprehension generally remains intact
Broca’s aphasia
Definition
a region in the frontal lobe of the dominant hemisphere, usually the left, of the brain with functions linked to speech production
Broca’s area
Definition
a phenomenon of perception of distinct categories when there is a gradual change in a variable along a continuum. It was originally observed for auditory stimuli but now found to be applicable to other perceptual modalities
Categorical perception
Definition
the articulation of two or more speech sounds together, so that one influences the other
Coarticulation
Definition
The rapid change in frequency of a formant for a vowel immediately before or after a consonant
Formant transitions
Definition
a concentration of acoustic energy around a particular frequency in the speech wave
Formants
Definition
the configuration and interaction of the articulators (speech organs such as the tongue, lips, and palate) when making a speech sound
Manner of articulation
Definition
a perceptual phenomenon that demonstrates an interaction between hearing and vision in speech perception
McGurk effect
Definition
the hypothesis that people perceive spoken words by identifying the vocal tract gestures with which they are pronounced rather than by identifying the sound patterns that speech generates.
Motor theory of speech perception
Definition
characterized by several different modes of activity or occurrence
Multimodal
Definition
conveying phonetic information primarily through temporal-envelope cues rather than spectral cues
Noise-vocoded speech
Definition
any of the perceptually distinct units of sound in a specified language that distinguish one word from another, for example p, b, d, and t in the English words pad, pat, bad, and bat.
Phoneme
Definition
a perceptual phenomenon where under certain conditions, sounds actually missing from a speech signal can be restored by the brain and may appear to be heard
Phonemic restoration effect
Definition
the point of contact where an obstruction occurs in the vocal tract between an articulatory gesture, an active articulator (typically some part of the tongue), and a passive location (typically some part of the roof of the mouth)
Place of articulation
Definition
an experimental technique in which subjects repeat speech immediately after hearing it
Shadowing
Definition
suggests that social interaction creates an optimal learning environment for infants, an environment that introduces learning through social context.
Social gating hypothesis
Definition
a visual representation of the spectrum of frequencies of a signal as it varies with time
Sound spectrogram
Definition
the process of identifying the boundaries between words, syllables, or phonemes in spoken natural languages
Speech segmentation
Definition
the ability for humans and other animals to extract statistical regularities from the world around them to learn about the environment
Statistical learning
Definition
a term primarily used in mathematics and is used to describe actions and reactions to what is called the “Markov Chain.”
Transitional probabilities
Definition
a feature of the production of stop consonants. It is defined as the length of time that passes between the release of a stop consonant and the onset of voicing, the vibration of the vocal folds, or, according to other authors, periodicity
Voice onset time (VOT)
Definition
a type of aphasia in which individuals have difficulty understanding written and spoken language
Wernicke’s aphasia
Definition
a region of the brain concerned with the comprehension of language, located in the cortex of the dominant temporal lobe
Wernicke’s area
Definition
inability to comprehend the meanings of words though they are heard, caused by lesions of the auditory center of the brain
Word deafness
How are vowels produced?
Vowels are produced by vibration of the vocal cords and changes in the shape of the vocal tract by moving the articulators.
Changes in shape of the articulators cause changes in the __________ of the vocal tract and produce peaks in pressure at a number of frequencies called _________
Changes in shape of the articulators cause changes in the resonant frequency of the vocal tract and produce peaks in pressure at a number of frequencies called formants
What structures does the vocal tract include?
The vocal tract includes the nasal and oral cavities and the pharynx, as well as components that move, such as the tongue, lips, and vocal cords.
What is this diagram describing?
Left: the shape of the vocal tract for the vowels /I/ and /oo/. Right: the amplitude of the pressure changes produced for each vowel. The peaks in the pressure changes are the formants. Each vowel sound has a characteristic pattern of formants that is determined by the shape of the vocal tract for that vowel. (Denes and E. N. Pinson, 1993)
Which formant has the lowest frequency?
The first formant
____________ are a better way to show the changes in frequency and intensity for speech.
Sound/Speech spectrograms are a better way to show the changes in frequency and intensity for speech.
Why are these subtle differences in the speech spectograms of words with all the same vowel sounds?
The subtle differences are the formant transitions and are caused by constonants
How are constonants produced?
Consonants are produced by a constriction of the vocal tract and air flow around articulators.
What is the smallest unit of speech that changes the meaning of a word?
Phoneme
How many phonemes exist for the English language?
47
What is the difference between the first and second formants of a front, unrounded phoneme and a back, rounded phoneme?
Front, unrounded phonemes have a larger frequency difference between the first and second formant than a back, rounded phoneme
Describe the variability problem
there is no simple correspondence between the acoustic signal and individual phonemes.
People perceive speech easily in spite of the variability problems due to ____________
People perceive speech easily in spite of the variability problems due to perceptual constancy
When does categorical perception occur?
This occurs when a wide range of acoustic cues results in the perception of a limited number of sound categories
Listeners do not hear the incremental changes, instead they hear a sudden change from /da/ to /ta/ at the ____________
Listeners do not hear the incremental changes, instead they hear a sudden change from /da/ to /ta/ at the phonetic boundary.
What is this graph describing?
The results of a categorical perception experiment indicate that /da/ is perceived for VOTs to the left of the phonetic boundary, and that /ta/ is perceived at VOTs to the right of the phonetic boundary. (From Eimas & Corbit, 1973)
– Listeners could not correctly identify the position and they also did not notice that a phoneme was missing – called the __________________
– Listeners could not correctly identify the position and they also did not notice that a phoneme was missing – called the phonemic restoration effect.
Describe the segmentation problem
there are no physical breaks in the continuous acoustic signal
How do we perceive breaks between words?
Top-down processing, including knowledge a listener has about a language, affects perception of the incoming speech stimulus.
What is this diagram describing?
Speech perception is the result of top-down processing (based on knowledge and meaning) and bottom-up processing (based on the acoustic signal) working together.
A _________ for recognizing speech and a __________ that links the acoustic signal to movements for producing speech - called the dual stream model of speech perception (Hickock & Poeppel, 2007).
A ventral stream for recognizing speech and a dorsal stream that links the acoustic signal to movements for producing speech - called the dual stream model of speech perception (Hickock & Poeppel, 2007).
What is this image describing?
The dual-stream model of speech perception proposes a ventral pathway that is responsible for recognizing speech and a dorsal pathway that links the acoustic signal and motor movements. The blue areas are associated with the dorsal pathway; the yellow area with the ventral pathway. The red and green areas are also involved in the analysis of speech stimuli. (Adapted from Hickock and Poeppel, 2007).
True or False:
When we’re young we can tell difference between sounds that create all languages, but this is lost as we age due to pruning
True
