and neuroscience. Now truly interdisciplinary in span, studies of speech perception include basic research on the perception of linguistic form while encompassing investigations of multisensory speech perception, speech perception with sensory prostheses, speech perception across the life span, speech perception in neuropathological disorders, as well as the study of the interchange of linguistic, paralinguistic, and indexical attributes of speech. Empirical practice has often turned to speech as a way to assess the potential of a new idea, making speech perception an intellectual crossroad for the subfields that compose contemporary behavioral neuroscience. This intellectual and scientific convergence is also reflected in the topics, large and small, that are represented here. The Second Edition, specifically, showcases new concerns, presents new understanding of lines of classic investigation, and offers a critical assay of technical and theoretical developments across the field of research.
Editors face many decisions in composing a handbook, one that can be useful for student and researcher alike. Early in our discussions, we understood that we would not be creating a comprehensive review of method and theory in research on speech perception. For one reason, technical methods and technical problems evolve rapidly as researchers explore one or another opportunity. For another, the Annual Reviews already exist and can satisfactorily offer a snapshot of a field at a particular instant. Aiming higher, we asked each of the contributors to articulate a point of view to introduce the reader to the major issues and findings in the field. The result is a broad‐ranging and authoritative collection of essays offering perspectives on exactly the critical questions that are likely to move a rapidly changing field of research.
The twenty‐five chapters are organized into five sections. Each essay provides an informed and critical exposition of a topic central to understanding, including: (1) a synthesis of current research and debate; (2) a narrative comprising clear examples and findings from the research literature and the author's own research program; and (3) a forward look toward anticipated developments in the field.
In Part I, Sensing Speech, four chapters cover a wide range of foundational issues in the field. Robert Remez discusses the perceptual organization of speech and how it differs from other auditory signals; Lawrence Rosenblum and Josh Dorsi present an argument and evidence for the primacy of multimodal speech perception; Jan Schnupp and Oiwi Parker‐Jones describe the representation of speech in the brain; and Kevin Munhall and colleagues explain the role of perception in controlling speech production.
In Part II, Perception of Linguistic Properties, eight chapters survey major topics in human speech perception. Shelia Blumstein describes the role of linguistic features in speech perception and lexical access; Keith Johnson and Matthias Sjerps discuss perceptual accommodation of differences between individual talkers; Rajka Smilianic examines the differences between casual and clear speech; Conor McLennan and Sara Incera Burkert present a critical appraisal of specificity effects in spoken word identification; Anne Cutler and Alexandra Jesse discuss the role of lexical stress in the perception of spoken words; Zinny Bond considers speech misperception in an essay on slips of the ear; Michael Vitevitch and Faisal Aljasser assess the contribution of phonotactic knowledge to speech perception; and Diana Van Lancker‐Sidtis and Sun‐Yeung Yang discuss the implications of the use of formulaic speech.
Part III is devoted to the Perception of Indexical Properties, those aspects of the speech of individual talkers that make them identifiable. The five chapters in this section include a discussion of the perception of dialectal variation, by Cynthia Clopper; the resolution of the spoken signals of individual identity, by Diana Van Lancker‐Sidtis and Romy Zäske; the integration of linguistic and non‐linguistic properties of speech, by Lynne Nygaard and Christina Tzeng; an essay on perceptual learning of accented speech, by Tessa Bent and Melissa Baese‐Berk; and an appraisal of the ability of children to notice indexical properties of speech, by Suzanne Levi.
In Part IV, the handbook considers Speech Perception by Special Listeners. Susan Nittrouer examines speech perception by children; Mitchell Sommers describes accounts of audiovisual speech perception in older adults; Cynthia Hunter and David Pisoni consider speech perception in prelingually deaf children when a cochlear implant is used; and Emily Myers examines the perception of speech following focal brain injury.
Part V includes four essays each offering a Theoretical Perspective on a new or classic concern of the field. Lawrence Raphael provides a detailed retrospective on the acoustic cues to segmental phonetic perception; Jennifer Pardo and Robert Remez offer a review of the influential idea that perception of speech relies on the dynamics of the production of speech; Susan Brady and Axelle Calcus consider the relation between reading and speech perception; and David Pisoni provides a review of the emerging field of cognitive audiology.
The scope of the topics encompassed in the Handbook of Speech Perception reflects the wide‐ranging research community that studies speech perception. This includes neighboring fields: audiology, speech and hearing sciences, behavioral neuroscience, cognitive science, computer science and electrical engineering, linguistics, physiology and biophysics, otology, and experimental psychology. The chapters are accessible to nonspecialists while also engaging to specialists. While the Handbook of Speech Perception takes a place among the many excellent companion volumes in the Wiley Blackwell series on language and linguistics, the collection is unique in its emphasis on the specific concerns of the perception of spoken language.
If the advent of a handbook can be viewed as a sign of growth and maturity of a discipline, the appearance of this Second Edition is evidence of the longevity of research interest in spoken language. This new edition of the Handbook of Speech Perception brings the diverse field together for the researcher who, while focusing on a specific aspect of speech perception, might desire a clearer understanding of the aims, methods, and prospects for advances across the field. In addition to the critical survey of developments across a wide range of research on human speech perception, we also anticipate the Handbook facilitating the development of multidisciplinary research on speech perception.
We cannot conclude without acknowledging the many individuals on whose creativity, knowledge, and cooperation this endeavor depended, namely, the authors whose essays compose the Handbook of Speech Perception. A venture of this scope cannot succeed without the conscientious care of a publisher to protect the project, and we have received the benefit of this attention from many people at Wiley, originating with Tanya McMullin who was instrumental at the start of the project, Angela Cohen, Rachel Greenberg, and Clelia Petracca.
With our sincere thanks,
Jennifer S. Pardo
Bedford, New York
Lynne C. Nygaard
Atlanta, Georgia
Robert E. Remez
New York, New York
David B. Pisoni
Bloomington, Indiana
1 Perceptual Organization of Speech
ROBERT E. REMEZ
Barnard College, Columbia University, United States
How does a perceiver resolve the linguistic properties of an utterance? This question has motivated many investigations within the study of speech perception and a great variety of explanations. In a retrospective summary over 30 years ago, Klatt (1989) reviewed a large sample of theoretical descriptions of the perceiver’s ability to project the sensory effects of speech, exhibiting inexhaustible variety, into a finite and small number of linguistically defined attributes, whether features, phones, phonemes, syllables, or words. While he noted many distinctions between the accounts, with few exceptions they