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Updated: Aug 29, 2026

Interaction between Phonological and Semantic Processes in Visual Word Recognition using Electrophysiology
Published on: June 29, 2021
Is speech perception modular or interactive?
Jeffrey S Bowers1, Colin J Davis
1Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, 8 Woodland Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8 1TN, UK. j.bowers@bris.ac.uk
Abstract:
Norris et al. recently reported experimental evidence that listeners learn phoneme categories in response to lexical feedback. To reconcile these findings with their modular account of speech perception, the authors argue that top-down feedback can be used to support phoneme learning, but not to influence on-line phonemic processing. We suggest that these findings have broader implications than the authors assume, and we discuss potential challenges for integrating a modular theory with top-down learning.
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