Subject: Re: Phoneme versus word recognition. From: Robert Zatorre <robert.zatorre(at)MCGILL.CA> Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2003 09:38:32 -0500--=====================_920717==_.ALT Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Hi Al For a word superiority effect in speech, see the paper by a long-ago office mate of mine: Ganong, William F. Phonetic categorization in auditory word perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance. Vol 6(1) Feb 1980, 110-125. For a related phenomenon in music, we recently looked at people's ability to determine whether two tones had identical pitch or not. It turns out that people are much better at making this judgment when the two tones in question come at the end of a melody, or even a tone sequence, than in isolation. Hence there is some top-down contextual effect operating. The reference is as follows: Warrier, C.M. and Zatorre, R.J. (2002) Influence of tonal context and timbral variation on perception of pitch. Perception & Psychophysics, 64, 198-207. (Al, you might remember this finding, seeing as you were on the student's examination committee!) Robert At 16:39 14/02/03 -0500, Al Bregman wrote: >Dear list , > >A graduate student at McGill has done some research with narrow band noises >of ambiguous pitch, showing that people are good at identifying melodies >made of these types of notes, even though they are poor at matching the >pitch of the individual notes. I thought that there might be some relation >to the "word superiority effect" in reading (we have many references) and in >speech perception. On the latter topic we have been able to find only one >article, Norris & Cutler (1988). Does anyone know of other examples of the >superiority of recognizing a larger unit, even though there is a lot of >uncertainty about the component units? Are there examples in music? > >We would appreciate any information on this topic. > >- Al >----------------------------------------------------------- >Albert S. Bregman, FRSC >Emeritus Professor >Dept. of Psychology, McGill University >1205 Docteur Penfield Ave. >Montreal, QC Canada H3A 1B1 > >Office Tel: (514) 398-6103, Fax -4896 >Home Tel. & Fax: (514) 484-2592 >E-mail: al.bregman(at)mcgill.ca >----------------------------------------------------------- **NOTE** Please use new e-mail address from now on: robert.zatorre(at)mcgill.ca -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Robert J. Zatorre, Ph.D. Montreal Neurological Institute 3801 University St. Montreal, QC Canada H3A 2B4 phone: 1-514-398-8903 fax: 1-514-398-1338 web site: www.zlab.mcgill.ca --=====================_920717==_.ALT Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii" <html> <font size=3><br> Hi Al<br> <br> For a word superiority effect in speech, see the paper by a long-ago office mate of mine:<br> <br> Ganong, William F. Phonetic categorization in auditory word perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance. Vol 6(1) Feb 1980, 110-125.<br> <br> For a related phenomenon in music, we recently looked at people's ability to determine whether two tones had identical pitch or not. It turns out that people are much better at making this judgment when the two tones in question come at the end of a melody, or even a tone sequence, than in isolation. Hence there is some top-down contextual effect operating. The reference is as follows:<br> </font> <dl><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3> <dd>Warrier, C.M. and Zatorre, R.J. (2002) Influence of tonal context and timbral variation on perception of pitch. <i>Perception & Psychophysics,</i> 64, 198-207.<br> <br> </font> </dl>(Al, you might remember this finding, seeing as you were on the student's examination committee!)<br> <br> Robert<br> <br> At 16:39 14/02/03 -0500, Al Bregman wrote:<br> <blockquote type=cite cite>Dear list ,<br> <br> A graduate student at McGill has done some research with narrow band noises<br> of ambiguous pitch, showing that people are good at identifying melodies<br> made of these types of notes, even though they are poor at matching the<br> pitch of the individual notes. I thought that there might be some relation<br> to the "word superiority effect" in reading (we have many references) and in<br> speech perception. On the latter topic we have been able to find only one<br> article, Norris & Cutler (1988). Does anyone know of other examples of the<br> superiority of recognizing a larger unit, even though there is a lot of<br> uncertainty about the component units? Are there examples in music?<br> <br> We would appreciate any information on this topic.<br> <br> - Al<br> -----------------------------------------------------------<br> Albert S. Bregman, FRSC<br> Emeritus Professor<br> Dept. of Psychology, McGill University<br> 1205 Docteur Penfield Ave.<br> Montreal, QC Canada H3A 1B1<br> <br> Office Tel: (514) 398-6103, Fax -4896<br> Home Tel. & Fax: (514) 484-2592<br> E-mail: al.bregman(at)mcgill.ca<br> -----------------------------------------------------------</blockquote><br> <div>**NOTE**</div> <div>Please use new e-mail address from now on:</div> <div>robert.zatorre(at)mcgill.ca</div> <br> <div>-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+</div> <br> <div>Robert J. Zatorre, Ph.D.</div> <div>Montreal Neurological Institute</div> <div>3801 University St.</div> <div>Montreal, QC Canada H3A 2B4</div> <div>phone: 1-514-398-8903</div> <div>fax: 1-514-398-1338</div> <div>web site: <a href="http://www.zlab.mcgill.ca/" EUDORA=AUTOURL>www.zlab.mcgill.ca</a></div> </html> --=====================_920717==_.ALT--