Discovering functional units in continuous speech.

ABSTRACT: Language learning requires that listeners discover acoustically variable functional units like phonetic categories and words from an unfamiliar, continuous acoustic stream. Although many category learning studies have examined how listeners learn to generalize across the acoustic variability inherent in the signals that convey the functional units of language, these studies have tended to focus upon category learning across isolated sound exemplars. However, continuous input presents many additional learning challenges that may impact category learning. Listeners may not know the timescale of the functional unit, its relative position in the continuous input, or its relationship to other evolving input regularities. Moving laboratory-based studies of isolated category exemplars toward more

SUBMITTER: Lim SJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4601578 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature