Speech Perception as Non-symbolic Pattern Recognition

Despite ongoing research, the human ability of speech perception remains a mystery. Current phonetic theory is divided by two points of contention: the relationship from production to signal to audition and the object of perception/cognition. Here we discuss the role of current phonetic theory within this debate and propose our own hypothesis. We argue that human speech is enabled through loosely constrained articulation and audition cou-pled with the cognitive process of direct realism (DR). We also contend that disembodied pattern recognition is sufficient for the perception of phonetic tokens, as grounding can be maintained through the properties of real speech. However, to maintain this at the semantic level we feel that robotic embodiment will be necessary