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The Emergence of Discrete Perceptual-Motor Units in a Production Model That Assumes Holistic Phonological Representations

Intelligible speakers achieve specific vocal tract constrictions in rapid sequence. These constrictions are associated in theory with speech motor goals. Adult-focused models of speech production assume that discrete phonological representations, sequenced into word-length plans for output, define t...

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Autores principales: Davis, Maya, Redford, Melissa A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6759877/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31620055
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02121
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author Davis, Maya
Redford, Melissa A.
author_facet Davis, Maya
Redford, Melissa A.
author_sort Davis, Maya
collection PubMed
description Intelligible speakers achieve specific vocal tract constrictions in rapid sequence. These constrictions are associated in theory with speech motor goals. Adult-focused models of speech production assume that discrete phonological representations, sequenced into word-length plans for output, define these goals. This assumption introduces a serial order problem for speech. It is also at odds with children's speech. In particular, child phonology and timing control suggest holistic speech plans, and so the hypothesis of whole word production. This hypothesis solves the serial order problem by avoiding it. When the same solution is applied to adult speech the problem becomes how to explain the development of highly intelligible speech. This is the problem addressed here. A modeling approach is used to demonstrate how perceptual-motor units of production emerge over developmental time with the perceptual-motor integration of holistic speech plans that are also phonological representations; the specific argument is that perceptual-motor units are a product of trajectories (nearly) crossing in motor space. The model, which focuses on the integration process, defines the perceptual-motor map as a set of linked pairs of experienced perceptual and motor trajectories. The trajectories are time-based excursions through speaker-defined perceptual and motor spaces. By hypothesis, junctures appear where motor trajectories near or overlap one another in motor space when the shared (or extremely similar) articulatory configurations in these regions are exploited to combine perceptually-linked motor paths along different trajectories. Junctures form in clusters in motor space. These clusters, along with their corresponding (linked) perceptual points, represent perceptual-motor units of production, albeit at the level of speech motor control only. The units serve as pivots in motor space during speaking; they are points of transition from one motor trajectory to another along perceptually-linked paths that are selected to produce best approximations of whole word targets.
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spelling pubmed-67598772019-10-16 The Emergence of Discrete Perceptual-Motor Units in a Production Model That Assumes Holistic Phonological Representations Davis, Maya Redford, Melissa A. Front Psychol Psychology Intelligible speakers achieve specific vocal tract constrictions in rapid sequence. These constrictions are associated in theory with speech motor goals. Adult-focused models of speech production assume that discrete phonological representations, sequenced into word-length plans for output, define these goals. This assumption introduces a serial order problem for speech. It is also at odds with children's speech. In particular, child phonology and timing control suggest holistic speech plans, and so the hypothesis of whole word production. This hypothesis solves the serial order problem by avoiding it. When the same solution is applied to adult speech the problem becomes how to explain the development of highly intelligible speech. This is the problem addressed here. A modeling approach is used to demonstrate how perceptual-motor units of production emerge over developmental time with the perceptual-motor integration of holistic speech plans that are also phonological representations; the specific argument is that perceptual-motor units are a product of trajectories (nearly) crossing in motor space. The model, which focuses on the integration process, defines the perceptual-motor map as a set of linked pairs of experienced perceptual and motor trajectories. The trajectories are time-based excursions through speaker-defined perceptual and motor spaces. By hypothesis, junctures appear where motor trajectories near or overlap one another in motor space when the shared (or extremely similar) articulatory configurations in these regions are exploited to combine perceptually-linked motor paths along different trajectories. Junctures form in clusters in motor space. These clusters, along with their corresponding (linked) perceptual points, represent perceptual-motor units of production, albeit at the level of speech motor control only. The units serve as pivots in motor space during speaking; they are points of transition from one motor trajectory to another along perceptually-linked paths that are selected to produce best approximations of whole word targets. Frontiers Media S.A. 2019-09-18 /pmc/articles/PMC6759877/ /pubmed/31620055 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02121 Text en Copyright © 2019 Davis and Redford. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Davis, Maya
Redford, Melissa A.
The Emergence of Discrete Perceptual-Motor Units in a Production Model That Assumes Holistic Phonological Representations
title The Emergence of Discrete Perceptual-Motor Units in a Production Model That Assumes Holistic Phonological Representations
title_full The Emergence of Discrete Perceptual-Motor Units in a Production Model That Assumes Holistic Phonological Representations
title_fullStr The Emergence of Discrete Perceptual-Motor Units in a Production Model That Assumes Holistic Phonological Representations
title_full_unstemmed The Emergence of Discrete Perceptual-Motor Units in a Production Model That Assumes Holistic Phonological Representations
title_short The Emergence of Discrete Perceptual-Motor Units in a Production Model That Assumes Holistic Phonological Representations
title_sort emergence of discrete perceptual-motor units in a production model that assumes holistic phonological representations
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6759877/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31620055
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02121
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