Motor Theory of Speech Perception

From: Taylor, Karl (krt196@soton.ac.uk)
Date: Mon Apr 28 1997 - 19:35:04 BST


> (27) The findings about perception by chinchillas:
>
> A. are irrelevant to theories of speech perception
> B. support the motor theory of speech perception
> C. *contradict the motor theory of speech perception
> D. support the locus theory of speech perception
> E. contradict the locus theory of speech perception
 
I can remember this from the lecture:

Some people proposed a new theory, Motor Theory, to explain
speech perception (which says that it is based on speech
production), involving categorical perception.

Someone found out that preverbal infants pocess categorical
perception.
The Motor Theorists said "Oh. Well, I guess categorical
perception is so important that it is hard wired in our
species."

Someone else then found out that even chinchillas have this
thing.
The Motor Theorists said "Really?! Well, prehaps speech
simply took advantage of a pre-existing sensitivity in our
early ancestors."

But how does this contradict the Motor Theory?
Speech perception is still based on speeh production.



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