Phonetics
Perception

Language perception is the process by which a linguistic signal is decoded and understood by a listener. To perceive speech, the continuous acoustic signal must be converted into discrete linguistic units such as phonemes, morphemes, and words. To correctly identify and categorize sounds, listeners prioritize certain aspects of the signal that can reliably distinguish between linguistic categories. While certain cues are prioritized over others, many aspects of the signal can contribute to perception. For example, though oral languages prioritize acoustic information, the McGurk effect shows that visual information is used to distinguish ambiguous information when the acoustic cues are unreliable.

While listeners can use a variety of information to segment the speech signal, the relationship between acoustic signal and category perception is not a perfect mapping. Because of coarticulation, noisy environments, and individual differences, there is a high degree of acoustic variability within categories. Known as the problem of perceptual invariance, listeners are able to reliably perceive categories despite the variability in acoustic instantiation. To do this, listeners rapidly accommodate to new speakers and will shift their boundaries between categories to match the acoustic distinctions their conversational partner is making.
language:response_language[Polish]