Question

Which of the following has/have been observed in speech perception experiments?

• A. Speech perception experiments with infants show that they are sensitive at birth to the rhythmic properties of their language, as well as the difference between stress-timed and syllable-timed languages.
• B. Infants and adults show categorical perception of consonant sounds, that is, the ability to treat what is a continuous acoustic feature as discrete.
• C. Infants are sensitive to sounds that are not part of the phonemic inventory of the language(s) to which they are exposed, but older children and adults are not.
• D. The Phoneme Restoration effect seen in speech perception experiments (where people hear phonemes that have been replaced by noise or a cough) shows that speech is perceived as linear.

Hint:

Speech perception relies heavily on cognitive processing and linguistic experience, not just raw acoustic input

Answer 1

The Correct Option is A, B, C

Step 1: Sensitivity to rhythm in infancy.
Research in speech perception has shown that infants are sensitive from birth to rhythmic properties of languageThey can distinguish between stress-timed and syllable-timed languagesThis confirms statement (A)
Step 2: Categorical perception of speech sounds.
Both infants and adults perceive consonant sounds categoricallyThey treat continuous acoustic variations as belonging to discrete phonemic categoriesThus, statement (B) is correct
Step 3: Sensitivity to non-native contrasts.
Infants initially show sensitivity to phonetic contrasts not present in their native languageHowever, with age and exposure, this sensitivity declines in older children and adultsThis supports statement (C)
Step 4: Evaluating the phoneme restoration effect.
The phoneme restoration effect actually shows that speech perception is non-linear and context-drivenIt does not support the idea that speech is perceived as linearTherefore, statement (D) is incorrect
Step 5: Final conclusion.
The observations supported by speech perception experiments are (A), (B), and (C)