Blog Archives

Reconsidering the role of temporal order in spoken word recognition

Toscano, J. C., Anderson, N. D., & McMurray, B. (2013). Psychonomic Bulletin and Review.

Abstract: Models of spoken word recognition assume that words are represented as sequences of phonemes. We evaluated this assumption by examining phonemic anadromes, words that share the same phonemes but differ in their order (e.g., .. Read more →

Tagged with: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Journal Articles

Cue-integration and context effects in speech: Evidence against speaking-rate normalization

Toscano, J. C., & McMurray, B. (2012). Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics, 74, 1284-1301.

Abstract: Listeners are able to accurately recognize speech despite variation in acoustic cues across contexts, such as different speaking rates. Previous work has suggested that listeners use rate information (indicated by vowel length; VL) to modify their use of context-dependent acoustic cues, like voice-onset time (VOT), a primary cue to voicing... Read more →

Tagged with: , , , , , ,
Posted in Journal Articles

Continuous perception and graded categorization: Electrophysiological evidence for a linear relationship between the acoustic signal and perceptual encoding of speech

Toscano, J. C., McMurray, B., Dennhardt, J., & Luck, S. J. (2010). Psychological Science, 21, 1532-1540.

Abstract: Speech sounds are highly variable, yet listeners readily extract information from them and transform continuous acoustic signals into meaningful categories during language comprehension. A central question is whether perceptual encoding captures acoustic detail in a one-to-one fashion or whether it is affected by phonological categories... Read more →

Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Journal Articles

Cue Integration With Categories: Weighting Acoustic Cues in Speech Using Unsupervised Learning and Distributional Statistics

Toscano, J. C., & McMurray, B. (2010). Cognitive Science, 34, 434-464.

Abstract: During speech perception, listeners make judgments about the phonological category of sounds by taking advantage of multiple acoustic cues for each phonological contrast. Perceptual experiments have shown that listeners weight these cues differently. How do listeners weight and combine acoustic cues to arrive at an overall estimate of the category for a speech sound?.. Read more →

Tagged with: , , , , , ,
Posted in Journal Articles

Statistical learning of phonetic categories: Insights from a computational approach

McMurray, B., Aslin, R. N., & Toscano, J. C. (2009). Developmental Science, 12, 369-378.

Abstract: Recent evidence (Maye, Werker & Gerken, 2002) suggests that statistical learning may be an important mechanism for the acquisition of phonetic categories in the infant’s native language. We examined the sufficiency of this hypothesis and its implications for development by implementing a statistical learning mechanism in a computational model based on a mixture of Gaussians (MOG) architecture... Read more →

Tagged with: , , , , ,
Posted in Journal Articles

Language as shaped by the brain; the brain as shaped by development

Toscano, J. C., Perry, L. K., Mueller, K. L., Bean, A. F., Galle, M. E., & Samuelson, L. K. (2008). Commentary on Christiansen & Chater, “Language as shaped by the brain”, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 31, 535-536.

Abstract: Though we agree with their argument that language is shaped by domain-general learning processes, Christiansen & Chater (C&C) neglect to detail how the development of these processes shapes language change... Read more →

Tagged with: ,
Posted in Journal Articles