What determines success or failure when adults try to learn to hear speech sounds that are not in their native language? Here we use an explicitly dynamical framework for exploring phonological learning. Phonological categories are conceptua-lized as attractors in a dynamical system that evolves as learning proceeds. The dynamical system itself is structured by the native phono-logical system, as it is instantiated in the individual listener. This approach should help integrate phonetics and phonology (continuous and discrete symbolic descriptions) within a common frame-work, which in turn may elucidate how individuals perceive new phonological forms.
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