Journal article
Continuous perception and graded categorization: Electrophysiological evidence for a linear relationship between the acoustic signal and perceptual encoding of speech
Psychological science, Vol.21(10), pp.1532-1540
10/2010
DOI: 10.1177/0956797610384142
PMCID: PMC3523688
PMID: 20935168
Abstract
Speech sounds are highly variable, yet listeners readily extract information from them and transform continuous acoustic signals into meaningful categories during language comprehension. A central question is whether perceptual encoding captures continuous acoustic detail in a one-to-one fashion or whether it is affected by categories. We addressed this in an event-related potential (ERP) experiment in which listeners categorized spoken words that varied along a continuous acoustic dimension (voice onset time; VOT) in an auditory oddball task. We found that VOT effects were present through a late stage of perceptual processing (N1 component, ca. 100 ms poststimulus) and were independent of categories. In addition, effects of within-category differences in VOT were present at a post-perceptual categorization stage (P3 component, ca. 450 ms poststimulus). Thus, at perceptual levels, acoustic information is encoded continuously, independent of phonological information. Further, at phonological levels, fine-grained acoustic differences are preserved along with category information.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Continuous perception and graded categorization: Electrophysiological evidence for a linear relationship between the acoustic signal and perceptual encoding of speech
- Creators
- Joseph C Toscano - Dept. Of Psychology University of IowaBob McMurray - Dept. Of Psychology University of IowaJoel Dennhardt - University of Tennessee at MemphisSteven. J Luck - Dept. of Psychology and Center for Mind & Brain University of California, Davis
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Psychological science, Vol.21(10), pp.1532-1540
- DOI
- 10.1177/0956797610384142
- PMID
- 20935168
- PMCID
- PMC3523688
- NLM abbreviation
- Psychol Sci
- ISSN
- 0956-7976
- eISSN
- 1467-9280
- Grant note
- R01 DC008089-01A1 || DC / National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders : NIDCD
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 10/2010
- Academic Unit
- Communication Sciences and Disorders; Linguistics; Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute; Otolaryngology
- Record Identifier
- 9984070565102771
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