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The Recognition of Spoken Word

  • Chapter
Language Comprehension: A Biological Perspective

Abstract

Listening to speech is one of our favorite activities. Our ears and brain are increasingly solicited by speech sounds, as our means of communication — radio, TV, and most recently, the mobile phone — continue to develop. Fortunately, in most instances the processing of our native language is rapid, automatic, and efficient. However, this remarkable and seemingly effortless ability to understand speech from diverse speakers in various situations — ranging from face to face conversations to the filtered speech received in phone transmissions — in fact hides a highly complex cognitive device. As complexity only becomes truly apparent when this device is damaged, as in the case of aphasia, or is presented with a language that it does not master, or is placed in an experimental situation that is particularly difficult or constraining.

Support for this research was provide by a grant from the Swiss National Fund for Scientific Research (grant 1113-049698.96).

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Authors
  1. Ulrich H. Frauenfelder
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  2. Caroline Floccia
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Frauenfelder, U.H., Floccia, C. (1998). The Recognition of Spoken Word. In: Language Comprehension: A Biological Perspective. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-97734-3_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-97734-3_1

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