Click placement and units of perceptual processing

Area of Science:

• Psycholinguistics
• Experimental Psychology
• Phonetics

Background:

• The click-placement method has been used to study perceptual processes.
• Previous research has drawn conclusions about speech perception units.
• Ladefoged and Broadbent's [1960] original claim regarding basic processing units requires examination.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a working hypothesis for examining basic processing units in speech perception.
• To investigate processing units at segment, syllable, and foot levels.
• To test the psychological reality of the syllable and foot.

Main Methods:

• Survey of earlier studies using the click-placement method.
• Application of the click-placement task within a hierarchical perceptual decision framework.
• Experimental design to probe processing units at different linguistic levels.

Main Results:

• Evidence supports the psychological reality of the syllable and foot.
• The phonetic basis of the foot can be replaced by top-down information.
• Differential word demarcation was observed between foot and syllable levels, influenced by segmental structure.

Conclusions:

• The syllable and foot are psychologically real units in speech perception.
• Top-down information plays a role in processing the phonetic basis of the foot.
• Segmental structure influences word demarcation, particularly between the foot and syllable levels.