What explains the phonemic restoration effect?
top-down processing
The phonemic restoration effect is a perceptual phenomenon where a listener perceives a missing phoneme in a word or sentence that has been interrupted by non-speech sounds, such as white noise or a cough. This effect occurs because the brain uses contextual cues from surrounding speech sounds and the overall meaning of the sentence to fill in the missing information.
The phonemic restoration effect can be explained by top-down processing, which involves using previous knowledge and experience to interpret incoming sensory information. In the case of speech perception, listeners use their knowledge of the phonemic and prosodic patterns of their language to fill in gaps or repair misunderstandings in the speech they hear.
For example, if a sentence is interrupted by a cough at the beginning of the word “butterflies,” the listener may still perceive the plosive /b/ sound even though it was not actually presented in the acoustic signal. This is because the listener’s brain uses the context of the sentence and their knowledge of the phonemic and prosodic patterns of English to infer that the word was “butterflies” and not another word like “utters lies.”
Overall, the phonemic restoration effect shows how language processing is a dynamic interplay between bottom-up acoustic information and top-down linguistic knowledge and expectations.
More Answers:
Unlocking the Secrets of Visual Perception: Understanding the Psychological Processes Behind Interpreting Visual StimuliHow HM’s Bilateral Medial Temporal Lobe Resection Surgery Revolutionized Our Understanding of Memory and the Brain
The importance of HM’s case study for understanding memory & neuroscience