The paper argues that the discrete phonetic segments on which language is raised are subjective gestural structures that emerge ontogenetically (and perhaps emerged evolutionarily) from the process of imitating a quasi-continuous acoustic signal with a neuroanatomically segmented and somatotopically organized vocal machinery. Evidence cited for somatotopic organization includes the perceptual salience in the speech signal of information specifying place of articulation, as revealed both by sine wave speech and by the pattern of errors in children's early words.

Humans↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Speech perception deficits in poor readers: a reply to Denenberg's critique.

We reply to Denenberg's (1999) recent critique of our work (Mody, Studdert-Kennedy, & Brady, 1997). Denenberg mounted two main lines of criticism, one concerning characteristics of the population sampled for the experimental group, and the other a statistical critique, concerning (a) violation of parametric assumptions for use of the F distribution and (b) our supposed acceptance of the null hypothesis of no differences between experimental and control groups. We show that the first criticism stemmed from a misunderstanding of the experimental hypothesis and that the second can be answered by both parametric and nonparametric comparisons across conditions within the experimental group, without reference to the control group. Thus, our original conclusion stands: The difficulty with rapid /ba/-/da/ discrimination that some children with reading impairment may experience does not stem from difficulty in discriminating the rapid spectral transitions at stop-vowel syllable onsets.

Child↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Auditory and linguistic processes in the perception of intonation contours.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Speech perception.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Brain↗