The phonemic restoration effect suggests that humans
A) have an unlimited phonemic inventory.
B) are able to pay attention to only one stimulus at a time.
C) have a difficult time understanding degraded speech if some part of the utterance is missing.
D) have the ability to understand degraded speech if most of the utterance remains intact.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The phonemic restoration effect refers to the phenomenon where listeners are able to understand degraded speech if most of the utterance remains intact. This is possible because humans have the ability to fill in missing phonemes based on contextual information and their knowledge of the language. Option A is incorrect because humans do not have an unlimited phonemic inventory. Option B is also incorrect as humans are able to process multiple stimuli at the same time. Option C is incorrect because the phonemic restoration effect shows that listeners can understand degraded speech even if some part of the utterance is missing.

The Phonemic Restoration Effect Suggests That Humans