Perceiving Talking Faces : From Speech Perception to a Behavioral Principle

Proposes an invariant law of pattern recognition to describe how continuously perceived information such as speech input is processed to achieve perception of a category.

Pattern recognition is deemed central to cognition. It appears to follow an optimal algorithm in a wide variety of behaviors and situations. Perceiving Talking Faces proposes an invariant law of pattern recognition to describe how continuously perceived information such as speech input is processed to achieve perception of a category. The book details the author's extensive series of experiments on the use of bimodal cues in speech perception as well as the application of the Fuzzy Logical Model of Perception in speech and a variety of other domains. It presents a blend of theory, mathematical model testing, empirical results, and applications. The author's underlying purpose is to describe and defend a universal principle of psychological theory. The final part of the book presents the science and applications of the synthetic talking face that was used in most of the speech perception experiments. The CD-ROM that accompanies the book allows the reader to experience the intriguing perceptual phenomena directly; it also provides a valuable research and teaching resource.

Dominic W. Massaro is Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.