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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 11, 2026

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization
05:35

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization

Published on: April 19, 2017

Speech perception as categorization.

Lori L Holt1, Andrew J Lotto

  • 1Department of Radiology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. lholt@andrew.cmu.edu

Attention, Perception & Psychophysics
|July 6, 2010
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Speech perception (SP) involves mapping acoustic signals to linguistic units, functioning as a categorization process. Understanding SP requires addressing challenges in speech sound categorization and its link to broader cognitive research.

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Last Updated: Jun 11, 2026

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Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Science
  • Linguistics
  • Auditory Perception

Background:

  • Speech perception (SP) maps variable acoustic signals to linguistic representations like phonemes.
  • This process is fundamentally a form of categorization, assigning sounds to equivalent classes.
  • Challenges in understanding speech sound categorization impact the conceptualization of SP.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore key challenges in speech sound categorization within speech perception.
  • To re-conceptualize speech perception as perceptual categorization.
  • To highlight research questions relevant to phoneme categorization.

Main Methods:

  • Literature review and conceptual analysis of existing research on speech perception and categorization.
  • Focus on experimental findings related to phoneme categorization.
  • Theoretical framing of SP within broader perceptual and cognitive research.

Main Results:

  • Identified significant challenges in understanding the categorization of speech sounds.
  • Argues for viewing speech perception as a form of perceptual categorization.
  • Demonstrates the interconnectedness of SP with other areas of perception and cognition.

Conclusions:

  • Speech perception is best understood as perceptual categorization.
  • This perspective integrates SP research with broader cognitive science.
  • Addressing categorization challenges is crucial for advancing the study of speech perception.