In a test for categorical perception, participants hear two sounds and are asked to say whether the sounds are the same phoneme or different phonemes. What have such tests found?
A) Performance is poor at first, but listeners become more discerning between sounds with practice.
B) Performance is poor despite large acoustic differences, as long as the sounds fall within the same phoneme category.
C) Performance is better if the sounds are acoustically different and fall within the same phoneme category than it is if they come from different phoneme categories.
D) Listeners can respond equally well to all sound differences but take more time to respond if the sounds come from the same phoneme category.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Tests for categorical perception have consistently found that performance is poor despite large acoustic differences if the sounds fall within the same phoneme category. This supports the idea that listeners perceive speech sounds categorically, rather than continuously.

In a Test for Categorical Perception, Participants Hear Two Sounds