Abstract:
Several theories (e.g., Motor Theory [Liberman and Mattingly, Cognition 21, 1-- 36, 1985]) posit a link between perception and production. One way of examining the interrelationship between production and perception is to look at individual differences in both types of tasks. Previous research has yielded somewhat ambiguous results, but many of these studies looked at the boundaries between categories. The current study examined individuals' prototypes and related data from production. Subjects participated in a perceptual task modeled on that of Miller and Volaitis [Percept. Psychophys. 46, 505--512 1989]. Subjects heard members of a VOT series centered on /pa/, and rated them according to ``p'' category goodness. These same subjects were recorded producing stop consonant--vowel tokens, and the VOTs of these productions were measured. A correlation was found between the average VOT for subjects' productions of ``pa'' and the VOT of the tokens they rated as the best examples. This supports the idea of a perception-production link, and leaves open the possibility that a common mechanism may be used in both processes. [Work supported by NIDCD Grant No. R01 DC00219 to SUNY at Buffalo.]