Browsing by Author "Breedin, Sarah DuBois"
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Item A comparison of discrimination for speech and nonspeech and implications for theories of speech perception(1988) Breedin, Sarah DuBois; Martin, Randi C.The present paper reviewed the literature supporting and contradicting three theories of categorical perception in speech; the specialized speech processor theory, the cue duration theory, and the acoustic percept theory. Three experiments were then carried out to further investigate these theories. The first experiment compared subjects' perception of speech and three types of nonspeech stimuli (simple nonspeech, complex nonspeech, and reverse speech) and the effect of training on subjects' ability to discriminate these stimuli. The second experiment, dealt with a failure to replicate Pisoni (1977) using complex speech stimuli with the same parameters. The third experiment, compared speech and nonspeech perception in aphasic patients. Results failed to lend support to the specialized speech processing theory. Support for the cue duration theory and acoustic percept theory was mixed.Item The relationship of semantic and syntactic aspects of verb representation(1992) Breedin, Sarah DuBois; Martin, Randi C.Most theories of language recognize the importance and complexity of verbs. Verbs convey both semantic and syntactic information, and therefore, the study of verb representation and processing can provide important insights into the nature and relationship of semantic and syntactic representation within the language processing system. Two models of verb representation were examined: (1) Semantic Complexity (Johnson-Laird, 1983); and (2) Conceptual Constituents (Pinker, 1989). The validity of these models was investigated by examining patterns of verb disruption in seven language impaired individuals. Investigation of patients' verb processing did not provide evidence for a model of verb representation based on semantic complexity, however, it did provide support for semantic representation of thematic roles within the lexicon separate from syntactic representation as posited by the conceptual constituent model. These findings were followed by an experiment investigating whether the language processing system has a bias for particular thematic roles in specific syntactic positions. The results indicated no bias for the syntactic position of specific thematic roles.