Don’t force it! Gradient speech categorization calls for continuous categorization tasks
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Date
2022Author
Apfelbaum, Keith S.
Kutlu, Ethan
McMurray, Bob
Kapnoula, Efthymia C.
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Keith S. Apfelbaum, Ethan Kutlu, Bob McMurray, and Efthymia C. Kapnoula , "Don't force it! Gradient speech categorization calls for continuous categorization tasks", The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 152, 3728-3745 (2022) https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0015201
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
Abstract
Research on speech categorization and phoneme recognition has relied heavily on tasks in which participants listen
to stimuli from a speech continuum and are asked to either classify each stimulus (identification) or discriminate
between them (discrimination). Such tasks rest on assumptions about how perception maps onto discrete responses
that have not been thoroughly investigated. Here, we identify critical challenges in the link between these tasks and
theories of speech categorization. In particular, we show that patterns that have traditionally been linked to
categorical perception could arise despite continuous underlying perception and that patterns that run counter to
categorical perception could arise despite underlying categorical perception. We describe an alternative measure of
speech perception using a visual analog scale that better differentiates between processes at play in speech
categorization, and we review some recent findings that show how this task can be used to better inform our theories.