LSA 104: Auditory word recognition

Arthur G. Samuel | session 1 | MW 3:30 – 5:15, 155 Donner Lab

People can communicate using spoken language at very high rates, and under quite adverse conditions (e.g., in a noisy restaurant). No computer-based word recognition systems even approach human performance. In this course, we will review some of the (acoustic-phonetic) fundamentals of speech perception, and then focus on spoken word recognition. Among the topics we will cover will be the architecture of the word recognition system, competing models of word recognition, and dynamic changes in the recognition system (including both the acquisition of new words, and retuning processes in the phonetic categorization process).

Reading: Selected materials available online.

Areas of linguistics: Language development and psycholinguistics; Phonetics, phonology, and morphology