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Merging information in speech recognition: Feedback is not necessary.
Authors:
Norris, D., McQueen,J. and Cutler, A.
Reference:
Behavioural and Brain Sciences (2000), 23(3), 299 - 325. + commentary and reply.
Year of publication:
2000
CBU number:
3792
Abstract:
We argue that top-down feedback does not benefit recognition, and can in fact hinder it. Furthermore, there is no experimental data on speech recognition which requires feedback loops. We therefore argue that feedback is unnecessary in speech recognition, and that spoken word recognition is modular. We defend this thesis through an examination of lexical involvement in phonemic decision-making. A literature review shows that no previous model is able to handle all the available data. We therefore present a new modular model of phonemic decision-making, the Merge model, which describes how the lexicon is involved in decisions about speech sounds.
