Speech Perception

Speech Perception

 I propose here a speech perception model based on
the assumption that both a bottom up and a top down system play a role in perception and on the
idea that production in the top down system plays a fundamental role in perception of new
words/utterances. To do this I turn to the analysis-by-synthesis model of speech recognition
proposed by Halle and Stevens (1962 ) and adopted by Mattingly and Liberman in their motor
theory of speech perception.
According to this analysis-by-synthesis model, the listener analyzes the acoustic input by
deriving how it is produced by the speaker, synthesizes a virtual acoustic signal based on the
output of this derivation, and matches the virtual to the actual signal. Given a sufficiently close
match, the listener achieves a mental representation of the percept that corresponds to the
invariant motor commands sent to the musculature underlying the vocal tract actions that
produced the acustic signal. The analysis-by-synthesis component is part of the top down
system.