Decoupling Speech Processing from Time
Year: 2025
Type: preprint
Abstract: Speech processing requires listeners to map temporally unfolding input to words. There has been consensus around the principles governing this process: lexical items are activated immediately and incrementally as speech arrives, perceptual and lexical representations rapidly decay to make room for new information, and lexical entries are temporally structured. In this framework, speech processing is tightly coupled to the temporally unfolding input. However, recent work challenges this: low-level auditory and higher-level lexical representations do not decay but are retained over long durations; speech perception may require encapsulated memory buffers; lexical representations are not strictly temporally structured; and listeners can delay lexical access substantially in some circumstances. These findings argue for a deep revision to models of word recognition.
Authors: John Baltazar Muegge, Hyoju Kim, Bob McMurray
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: National Institutes of Health
Awards: G9000023571, G9000048914
OpenAlex ID: W4407853765