Categorical perception (CP) is said to occur when a continuum of equally spaced physical changes is perceived as unequally spaced as a function of category membership (Harnad, S. (Ed.) (1987). Psychophysical and cognitive aspects of categorical perception: A critical overview. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). A common suggestion is that CP…

Presented neonates with lexical and grammatical words prepared from natural maternal speech. Found that neonates could categorically discriminate the sets based on a constellation of perceptual cues that distinguished them. Suggested that this ability to discriminate words on basis of multiple acoustic/phonological cues provides a perceptual base…

Examined the ability of bilingual college students from Catalonia, Spain to learn a new vowel contrast as indicated by classifying the vowel, discriminating two vowels, and judging its "category-goodness." Found a lack of behavioral plasticity and that early, extensive exposure to a second language was sufficient to attain the…