Cognitive penetration of the mechanisms of perception: Compensation for coarticulation of lexically restored phonemes

Abstract

An important question in language processing is whether higher-level processes are able to interact directly with lower-level processes, as assumed by interactive models such as the TRACE model of speech perception. This issue is addressed in the present study by examining whether putative interlevel phenomena can trigger the operation of intralevel processes at lower levels. The intralevel process involved the perceptual compensation for the coarticulatory influences of one speech sound on another. TRACE predicts that this compensation can be triggered by illusory phonemes which are perceived as a result of topdown, lexical influences. In Experiment 1, we confirm this prediction. Experiments 2 to 4 replicate this finding and fail to support several potential alternative explanations of the results of Experiment 1. The basic finding that intralevel phenomena can be triggered by interlevel processes argues against the view that aspects of speech perception are encapsulated in a module impervious to influences from higher levels. Instead, it supports a central premise of interactive models, in which basic aspects of perceptual processing are subject to influences from higher levels.