Duplex perception refers to the linguistic phenomenon whereby "part of the

acoustic signal Acoustic may refer to: Music Albums * ''Acoustic'' (Above & Beyond album), 2014 * ''Acoustic'' (Deine Lakaien album), 2007 * ''Acoustic'' (Everything but the Girl album), 1992 * ''Acoustic'' (John Lennon album), 2004 * ''Acoustic'' (Love Amo ...

is used for both a

speech Speech is a human vocal communication using language. Each language uses Phonetics, phonetic combinations of vowel and consonant sounds that form the sound of its words (that is, all English words sound different from all French words, even if ...

and a nonspeech percept." A listener is presented with two simultaneous, dichotic stimuli. One ear receives an isolated third- formant transition that sounds like a nonspeech chirp. At the same time the other ear receives a base

syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...

. This base syllable consists of the first two formants, complete with formant transitions, and the third formant without a transition. Normally, there would be peripheral masking in such a

binaural Binaural literally means "having or relating to two ears." Binaural hearing, along with frequency cues, lets humans and other animals determine the direction and origin of sounds. Similar to diotic which is used in psychophysics to describe an audi ...

listening task but this does not occur. Instead, the listener's percept is duplex, that is, the completed syllable is perceived and the nonspeech chirp is heard at the same time. This is interpreted as being due to the existence of a special speech module. The phenomenon was discovered in 1974 by Timothy C. Rand at the Haskins Laboratories associated with Yale University. Duplex perception was argued as evidence for the existence of distinct systems for general

auditory perception Hearing, or auditory perception, is the ability to perceive sounds through an organ, such as an ear, by detecting vibrations as periodic changes in the pressure of a surrounding medium. The academic field concerned with hearing is auditory ...

and

speech perception Speech perception is the process by which the sounds of language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by wh ...

. It is also notable that this same phenomenon can be obtained with slamming doors.

References

Psychoacoustics Phonetics Cognition {{ling-stub

See also

References