Language Perception Laboratory

Research

Work in our laboratory is aimed at understanding the processes and representations involved in the human's remarkable capacity to recognize spoken language so rapidly and accurately.  In particular, we are interested in the processes and representations that support spoken word recognition.

Our work on processing focuses primarily on two models of spoken word recognition:  The Neighborhood Activation Model and PARSYN. These models attempt to account for the nature of lexical activation and competition, as well as the role of probabilistic phonotactics.

Our work on representation examines the nature of sound-based representations in the mental lexicon, in particular their abstractness and specificity.

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Selected Recent Publications

Vitevitch, M. S. and Luce, P. A.  (2005). Increases in phonotactic probability facilitate spoken nonword repetition.  Journal of Memory and Language, 52, 193-204.

M^cLennan, C. T. and Luce, P. A.  (2005). Examining the time course of indexical specificity effects in spoken word recognition..  Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, Vol. 31, 2, 306-321.

Newman, R. S., Sawusch, J. R. & Luce, P. A.  (2005). Do postonset segments define a lexical neighborhood?.  Memory and Cognition, 33 (6), 941-960.

Ju, M. & Luce, P. A.  (2004). Falling on Sensitive Ears: Constraints on Bilingual Lexical Activation.  Psychological Science.

Luce, P. A., & M^cLennan, C. T. (To appear).  Spoken word recognition:  The challenge of variation.  In D. B., Pisoni & R. E. Remez (Eds.), Handbook of Speech Perception.

Auer, E. T., & Luce, P. A. (To appear).  Probabilistic phonotactics and spoken word recognition.  In D. B., Pisoni & R. E. Remez (Eds.), Handbook of Speech Perception.

M^cLennan, C. T., Luce, P. A., & Charles-Luce, J.  (2003). Representation of lexical form.  Journal of Experimental Psychology:  Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 29, 539-553.

Luce, P. A., M^cLennan, C. T., & Charles-Luce, J.  (2003). Abstractness and specificity in spoken word recognition:  Indexical and allophonic variability in long-term repetition priming.  In  J. Bowers  & C. Marsolek (Eds.),  Rethinking implicit memory, pp. 197-214.  Oxford:  Oxford University Press.

Hollich, G., & Luce, P. A.  (2002).   Lexical neighborhood effects in 17-month-old word learning.  Proceedings of the Boston University Conference on Language Development.

Jusczyk, P. W., & Luce, P. A. (2002).  Speech Perception and spoken word recognition:  Past and present.  Ear & Hearing, 23, 2-40.

Jusczyk, P. W., &  Luce, P. A. (2002).  Speech perception.  In Pashler, H., & Yantis, S. (Eds.), Stevens’ Handbook of Experimental Psychology, Volume 1:  Sensation and Perception (3^rd. ed.).  New York:  John Wiley and Sons, 493-536.

Luce, P. A., & Large, N.  (2001).  Phonotactics, neighborhood density, and entropy in spoken word recognition.  Language and Cognitive Processes, 16, 565-581. [Also In  J. M.  McQueen & A. Cutler (Eds.), Spoken word access processes.  East Sussex:  Psychology Press, 563-581.}

Luce, P. A., Goldinger, S. D.,  Auer, E. T., & Vitevitch, M. S.  (2000).  Phonetic priming, neighborhood activation, and PARSYN.  Perception & Psychophysics, 62, 615-625.

Luce, P. A., Goldinger, S. D., & Vitevitch, M. S.  (2000).  It's good . . . But is it ART?  [Commentary on the article Merging information in speech recognition:  Feedback is never necessary].  Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Luce, P. A., & Large, N.  (2000).  Do spoken words have attractors?  Proceedings of Spoken Word Access Procedures. Nijmegen, The Netherlands:  Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.

Newman, R. S., Sawusch, J. R., & Luce, P. A.  (2000).  The influence of underspecification and phoneme frequency in speech perception.  In  M. B. Broe and J. B.  Pierrehumbert (Eds.), Papers in Laboratory Phonology 5.  Cambridge, UK:  Cambridge University Press.

Luce, P. A., Charles-Luce, J., & Mclennan, C. (1999). Representational specificity of lexical form in the production and perception of spoken words. Proceedings of the 1999 International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 1889-1892.

Luce, P. A., & Lyons, E. A.  (1999).  Processing lexically embedded spoken words.  Journal of Experimental Psychology:  Human Perception and Performance, 25, 174-183.

Mattys, S. L., Jusczyk, P. W., Luce, P. A., & Morgan, J. L.  (1999).  Word segmentation in infants:  How phonotactics and prosody combine.  Cognitive Psychology, 38, 465-494.

Vitevitch, M. S., & Luce, P. A.  (1999).  Probabilistic phonotactics and neighborhood activation in spoken word recognition.  Journal of Memory and Language, 40, 374-408.

Vitevitch, M. S., Luce, P. A., Pisoni, D. B., & Auer, E. T.   (1999). Phonotactics, neighborhood activation, and lexical access for spoken words.  Brain and Language, 68, 306-311.

Gaygen, D. E., & Luce, P. A.  (1998).  Effects of modality on subjective frequency estimates and processing of spoken and printed words.  Perception & Psychophysics, 60, 465-483.

Luce, P. A., & Cluff, M. S.  (1998). Delayed commitment in spoken word recognition:  Evidence from Cross-modal Priming.  Perception & Psychophysics, 60, 484-490.

Luce, P. A., & Lyons, E. A. (1998).  Specificity of memory representations for spoken words.  Memory and Cognition, 26, 708-715.

Luce, P. A., & Pisoni, D. B.  (1998).  Recognizing spoken words:  The neighborhood activation model.  Ear and Hearing, 19, 1-36.

Vitevitch, M. S., & Luce, P. A.  (1998).  When words compete:  Levels of processing in spoken word perception.  Psychological Science, 9, 325-329.

Vitevitch, M. S., Luce, P. A., Charles-Luce, J., & Kemmerer, D.  (1997).  Phonotactic and syllable stress:  Implications for the processing of spoken nonsense words.  Language and Speech, 40, 47-62.

Newman, R. S., Sawusch, J. R., & Luce, P. A.  (1997).  Effects of lexical neighborhood density on phoneme perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology:  Human Perception and Performance, 23, 873-889.