Perceptual Categorization: Factors Influencing the Reproduction of Spoken Sounds Delivered at Suprathreshold Levels without Masking

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Abstract
45 Ss were patients of three clinical categories receiving phenathiozine medication. As Ss did not differ significantly with respect to the present analyses, data were pooled. Ss had normal hearing, and they repeated phonetic stimuli received via an earphone under standard audiological testing conditions. Errors in reproduction of common words (compound spondaic words, monosyllabic homonyms and non-homonyms), common prefixes and suffixes, nonsense syllables, and common words pronounced backward occurred least (2%) with the compound words, and they increased monotonically in the order given above to a frequency of 36% with the backward words. This result was interpreted as being due to the manipulation of the level of perceptual readiness and of the processes of categorization involved in classification of the stimulus in systematic and specific ways. This was accomplished variously by alteration of the expectancies relative to the phonetic, syntactic or semantic nature of succeeding stimuli, and to differences in the relative availability in memory of matching information caused by differences either in familiarity with the stimulus or in the range of meanings associated with the stimulus.

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