Speech is the transmission of thoughts or feeling from the mind of a speaker, to the mind of a listener (Fowler, 2003). It involves many complex actions in order to both produce and perceive it. Speech perception refers to the process in which speech sounds are heard, interpreted and subsequently understood. Research into the area of speech perception aims to gain an understanding into how humans listen to and recognise speech sounds, and then use that information to understand spoken language (Lieberman & Blumstein, 1988)
A number of psychologists have devised theories discussing just exactly how we produce and perceive speech, with some going as far as to say that ‘speech is special’. There is a handful of evidence to support this notion. The idea of speech being innate and human-specific is one idea. Another lies within our ability to perceive sounds as belonging to a particular group. There is also a theory that we have certain areas of the brain dedicated to speech. However, there is also evidence to counteract this idea for example, the wide variety of animal studies providing evidence that speechless animals are capable of categorical perception, and some even possess the same brain areas as humans, even though they cannot speak. …show more content…
The Motor theory has received numerous criticisms. One issue is that it implies that the ability to speak is required in order to perceive speech. However, speechless animals, such as monkeys can discriminate human speech sounds (Morse and Snowden, 1975). Research also suggests that babies and infants are able to perceive phonetic differences at birth, before they were able to speak (Eimas, Siqueland, Jusczyk & Vigorito, 1971). The argument made by Liberman that ‘speech is special’ has been criticised due to the ambiguousness of the term ‘special’ (Galantucci, Fowler and Turvey,
A number of psychologists have devised theories discussing just exactly how we produce and perceive speech, with some going as far as to say that ‘speech is special’. There is a handful of evidence to support this notion. The idea of speech being innate and human-specific is one idea. Another lies within our ability to perceive sounds as belonging to a particular group. There is also a theory that we have certain areas of the brain dedicated to speech. However, there is also evidence to counteract this idea for example, the wide variety of animal studies providing evidence that speechless animals are capable of categorical perception, and some even possess the same brain areas as humans, even though they cannot speak. …show more content…
The Motor theory has received numerous criticisms. One issue is that it implies that the ability to speak is required in order to perceive speech. However, speechless animals, such as monkeys can discriminate human speech sounds (Morse and Snowden, 1975). Research also suggests that babies and infants are able to perceive phonetic differences at birth, before they were able to speak (Eimas, Siqueland, Jusczyk & Vigorito, 1971). The argument made by Liberman that ‘speech is special’ has been criticised due to the ambiguousness of the term ‘special’ (Galantucci, Fowler and Turvey,