Haskins Publications

Number	557
Year	1986
Drawer	10
Entry Date	11/17/1999
Authors	Fowler, C. A. & Smith, M. R.
Contact
Publication	In J. S. Perkell and D. H. Klatts (Eds.), Invariance and variability in speech processes, 123-139. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
url	http://www.haskins.yale.edu/Reprints/HL0557.pdf
Abstract	[Introduction] Two central problems for a theory of speech perception are those of segmentation and invariance. The segmentation problem is to partition the acoustic signal into the phone-sized segments reported by phoneticians and (literate) listeners. The invariance problem - in the aspect that interests us here- is to explain why acoustically distinct, apparently context-sensitive, versions of a phonetic segment may sound free of contextual influences to listeners. We call this the problem of “perceptual invariance.” We suggest that the invariance problem arises in part from assumptions made to resolve the segmentation problem, and that different assumptions imply a novel solution to the problem of perceptual invariance. We approach the problem of segmentation with two hypotheses, one concerning the nature of perceptual systems. These hypotheses allow us to understand why listeners credit acoustic signals with phone-sized structure, and why they can report perceptual invariance for acoustically different signals.
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