Levels of Processing of Speech and Non-Speech

摘要

These studies examined both signal-dependent factors, and listener-dependentfactors. The examinations of signal factors include experiments on perceptual degradation due to signal interruption at critical rates (approximately 4 cps), and studies mapping the early levels of representation of speech. The data support the existence of two qualitatively different early processing stages; the first is relatively peripheral and subject to neural fatigue, while the second is central and subject to criterion shifts. The studies of listener based factors include studies of perceptual restoration of deleted sounds (phonemes or musical notes), and studies of the perceptual effect of attentional allocation. The restoration experiments indicate similar architectures in the perceptual processing of speech and music. The attentional investigations demonstrate rather fine-tuned attentional control under high-predictability conditions. Significant progress has been made in achieving the research objective of clarifying the properties of complex auditory pattern recognition.