Question 1

______ is an important area in the production of speech that is located in the left frontal lobe.

Accepted Answer

Broca's area in the left frontal lobe plays a crucial role in the production of speech, particularly in the generation and coordination of the motor movements necessary for speech. Lesions in this area can lead to a specific type of speech impairment known as Broca's aphasia, which is characterized by deficits in grammar, syntax, and articulation.

Question 2

Mattys, Barden, and Samuel (2014) had people simultaneously perform a listening task and a secondary visual task.As the secondary task became more difficult, ______.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Mattys, Barden, and Samuel (2014) had people...

Question 3

You want to convince your colleagues that there is a special mechanism underlying speech recognition, not a general mechanism.To do so, you could cite research into how ______ of the brain responds to the sounds of human speech.

Accepted Answer

The voice area is a specific region in the brain that appears to be dedicated to processing the sounds of human speech. Research into how this area responds to different sounds and stimuli can help demonstrate the specificity of mechanisms underlying speech recognition. Pasley's area, Wernicke's area, and Broca's area are all involved in language processing but may not provide as clear evidence of the unique mechanisms involved in speech recognition.

Question 4

The theory that the core of speech perception is that the system infers the sound from the movements of the vocal tract is known as the ______ theory of speech perception.

Accepted Answer

The statement describes the motor theory of speech perception, which suggests that the perception of speech sounds is based on the listener's knowledge of their own vocal tract movements and how these movements produce specific sounds.

Question 5

An area located in the superior temporal sulcus that responds to the sound of the human voice, but less so to other stimuli, is known as the ______.

Accepted Answer

The area described is commonly referred to as the "voice area" and is located in the superior temporal sulcus. It is known to respond specifically to the sound of the human voice, and less so to other stimuli such as music or animal vocalizations.

Question 6

Patient MC speaks fluently, but he often produces words that make no sense.He has extreme difficulties understanding others' speech, especially when he cannot see their face.Your diagnosis?

Accepted Answer

Patients with Wernicke's aphasia can produce fluent speech but often with errors in word selection and syntax. They have difficulty understanding others' speech and may not be aware of their own mistakes. The difficulty in understanding can be aggravated if they cannot see the speaker's face. Fowler's aphasia is also characterized by difficulty in word selection, but patients have relatively intact comprehension. Broca's aphasia is characterized by non-fluent speech production and difficulty forming grammatical sentences. Phonemic agnosia is a type of auditory agnosia, where patients cannot recognize or differentiate between phonemes, the smallest units of sound that make words.

Question 7

An impairment in language production or comprehension brought about by neurological damage is known as ______.

Accepted Answer

Aphasia is the term used to describe language impairments that result from neurological damage, such as a stroke or traumatic brain injury. Phonological amnesia and perceptual narrowing are not terms used to describe language impairments. Anosognosia is a lack of awareness or denial of a neurological deficit, but is not specific to language impairments.

Question 8

Sunami et al.(2013) used magnetoencephalography to examine the neurological correlates of the phonemic restoration effect.They found that ______.

Accepted Answer

Sunami et al. found that areas in the left prefrontal lobe responded more strongly to context for missing sounds than for sounds that were actually present, indicating the role of top-down processing in the phonemic restoration effect.

Question 9

Imagine that you are conducting research into speech perception.You have just conducted an experiment in which participants watched you saying monosyllabic sounds while the participants listened to someone else's voice over headphones.The voice they were listening to sometimes matched the sounds that you were saying, but sometimes the voice over the headphones did not match what you were saying.Your participants reported hearing the sounds that they saw you utter, even when the voice in the headphones did not match what you were actually saying.Your results provide support for a ______ theory of speech perception.

Accepted Answer

The results support the motor theory of speech perception, which suggests that people perceive speech by identifying the motor movements involved in producing the sounds, rather than just the auditory signals.

Question 10

In the motor theory of speech perception, it is thought that ______.

Accepted Answer

The motor theory of speech perception posits that perceiving speech is the result of matching the observed movements of a speaker's mouth with an internal motor representation of those movements. This theory suggests that the core of the speech perception system is inferring sound from the movements of the speaker's mouth.

Question 11

An important area in speech comprehension located in the left temporal lobe is called ______.

Accepted Answer

Wernicke's area is a critical area located in the left temporal lobe responsible for language comprehension, including speech comprehension. Broca's area is responsible for speech production, and the voice area and inferotemporal cortex are involved in auditory and visual processing, respectively, but not specifically related to speech comprehension.

Question 12

Maurer and Werker (2014) compared infants and adults in their perceptions of the two ways of saying the "t" sound in Hindi.Hindi speakers recognize the difference between these two sounds.To English-speaking adults, however, they both sound like "t," and the adults do not hear the difference.The researchers found that ______.

Accepted Answer

The researchers found that both sets of babies could reliably distinguish the two "t" sounds at 6 months of age, but at 10 months of age only the Hindi-learning babies could do so. This suggests that there is a critical period for language acquisition, and that infants' ability to perceive certain phonetic distinctions may become more difficult as they are exposed to less of those distinctions in their environment.

Question 13

The case study of Genie, an individual who grew up in extreme isolation, demonstrates that ______.

Accepted Answer

The case study of Genie demonstrates that early development is crucial for speech learning, but some speech learning abilities persist into later life. While Genie did struggle with speech after being isolated for so long, she was able to make progress and learn new words and grammar rules, indicating that speech learning abilities can still be present even in adulthood. However, it is important to note that Genie's case was highly unusual and extreme, and most individuals who experience early developmental deprivation will not have the same outcomes.

Question 14

As infants get older, they focus their attention on stimuli that are relevant to them, rather than attending to all stimuli out there.This is advantageous in learning one's first language, though it makes it more difficult to acquire a native-sounding accent in a second language later on.This idea is most associated with which phenomenon?

Accepted Answer

Perceptual narrowing refers to the process by which infants' perceptual abilities become more specialized towards the stimuli that are most relevant to them. This can make it more difficult for older children and adults to acquire a native-like accent in a second language, as they are less able to process the nuances of sounds that are not present in their native language.

Question 15

The developmental process whereby regularly experienced phonemes are homed in on, with simultaneous diminishing of the ability to discriminate unfamiliar phonemes, is known as ______.

Accepted Answer

Perceptual narrowing refers to the developmental process in which an individual's ability to perceive and distinguish between phonemes is narrowed down to only the frequently experienced ones, while the ability to distinguish between unfamiliar phonemes is diminished. Choices B, C, and D are not relevant to this context.

Question 16

The general scientific principle that simpler theories should be preferred over complex theories unless there is compelling evidence to support a more complex theory leads scientists to favor ______ theories of speech perception.

Accepted Answer

The general scientific principle mentioned in the question refers to Occam's Razor, which states that, all other things being equal, the simplest solution is usually the best one. In the case of speech perception, the general-mechanism theory proposes that the same basic cognitive and perceptual mechanisms that are used for non-speech sounds are also used for speech perception, unless there is compelling evidence to suggest otherwise. This is a simpler theory than the special-mechanism theory, which proposes that there are unique and specific mechanisms that are dedicated only to speech perception. Therefore, scientists would favor the general-mechanism theory unless there is compelling evidence to support the more complex special-mechanism theory. Motor and perceptual narrowing are not directly related to this principle.

Question 17

An experimenter uses a computer to delete or mask a particular sound in a sentence in which the context clearly indicates what the missing sound should be.The experimenter then plays the sentence for participants and asks them what they just heard.The result is that the participants report ______.

Accepted Answer

This phenomenon is known as the phonemic restoration effect, where listeners "fill in" missing phonetic components based on the context of the sentence, leading them to perceive the masked sound as if it were actually present.

Question 18

Patient RW has non-fluent speech.She is able to say just a few words, mostly nouns.However, she understands speech without any difficulties and can shake her head yes or no correctly in response to most questions.What is your diagnosis?

Accepted Answer

Patients with Broca's aphasia have difficulty producing speech, but their comprehension is relatively preserved. This fits with the description of Patient RW, who can only say a few words but understands speech without difficulty.

Question 19

In a study by Holt (2005), participants listened to speech sounds, such as "ga" or "da," that were preceded by series of non-speech sounds.The research found that ______.

Accepted Answer

The study found that the patterns of non-speech sounds influenced whether participants perceived speech sounds correctly. Therefore, option C is the correct answer. Option A is incorrect because the study did not find that the number of non-speech sounds influenced perception. Option B is also incorrect because the study did not investigate illusory distracting noise. Option D is also incorrect because the study found that non-speech sounds did influence perception.

Question 20

General-mechanism theories of speech perception claim that ______.

Accepted Answer

General-mechanism theories of speech perception suggest that the mechanisms we use to perceive speech sounds are not unique to speech but are the same as those used for perceiving all auditory stimuli.

Quiz 12: Speech Perception