The Intelligent Ear: On the Nature of Sound Perception

Contents......Page 6
Preface......Page 10
1. Introduction......Page 12
The Dominance of Sinusoidal Tones......Page 13
The Predilection for a “Microscopic” Approach......Page 14
The Preference for the Psychophysical Aspects of Perception......Page 17
Abstractions from “Dirty” Everyday Conditions......Page 18
Discussion......Page 20
Conclusions......Page 22
2. The Perception of Single Sounds......Page 23
The Ear as a Frequency Analyzer......Page 24
Timbre as the Characteristic Quality of Tones......Page 30
The Search for Pitch......Page 36
The Stability of Loudness......Page 40
Discussion......Page 41
Conclusions......Page 44
3. The Perception of Multiple Sounds......Page 45
The Continuity Effect......Page 46
Segregation of a Sequence of Sounds Into Two Sound Streams......Page 51
Restoration of Speech Segments Replaced by Noise......Page 57
Perceiving Temporal Order......Page 59
The Seemingly Odd Phenomenon of Comodulation Masking Release......Page 62
The Benefit of Listening With Two Ears......Page 65
Discussion......Page 67
Conclusions......Page 70
4. Speech Perception 1: The Quest for Speech Units......Page 71
The Dream of Visible Speech......Page 72
The Phonemes as Letters of an Alphabet......Page 74
Coarticulation: A Natural Rather Than a Disturbing Phenomenon......Page 81
How Infants Learn to Speak......Page 85
How Children Learn to Read......Page 88
The Alphabet as a Unique Invention......Page 93
Discussion......Page 97
Conclusions......Page 103
5. Speech Perception 2: The Intelligibility of Fluent Speech......Page 104
The Variance of the Speech Signal......Page 105
The Redundancy of the Speech Signal......Page 111
The Significance of Context......Page 115
Mental Lexicon and Lexical Access......Page 122
The Role of Context in Reading......Page 126
The Effects of Disturbing Noise......Page 131
Discussion......Page 136
Conclusions......Page 140
Four Types of Bias......Page 142
Sound Perception Is Categorical Perception......Page 148
Sound Perception as a Form of Object Perception......Page 152
The Prominence as Well as the Flexibility of Timbre......Page 156
Theoretical Speculations......Page 160
References......Page 166
D......Page 178
J......Page 179
O......Page 180
V......Page 181
Z......Page 182
R......Page 184
V......Page 185