BICERA, GALZA, LU, MATIAS, NISPEROS

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Theories of Speech Perception: TRACE Model

Topic Outline

I. Introduction
In speech perception, the varying theories presented must be able to account
for certain facts about the acoustic speech signal such as the fact that speech
signal cues are transmitted simultaneously and near instantaneous. On top of
that, these speech acoustic signals are continuous despite being perceived
as and presented as a series of discrete units. Various perceptual
phenomena such as categorical perception and phonemic restoration and
episodic memory, not to mention various word recognition (Scarborough,
2005). According to McClelland and Elman (1986), TRACE is a connectionist
network model of speech perception. It was named the TRACE model
because of the network of units forms a dynamic processing structured called
‘’the TRACE,’’ which serves at one as the perceptual processing mechanism
and as the system’s working memory. Its primary purposed is to account for
the integration of multiple sources of information, or constraint, in speech
perception. Furthermore, the TRACE model solves problems regarding
speech perception by positioning different kinds of processing units such as
phonemes and words in separated layers, allowing activated units to pass
information between layers, and more units within layers to compete, until
there is recognition in the brain (Hannagan, Magnuson, Grainger, 2013).

II. History and Proponents

During the formative years of connectionism, the researchers found some
problems regarding speech perception that could be solved in a connectionist
interactive activation model. Some of the problems present were: speech
being extended by time, speech sounds (phonemes) intersecting, articulation
being affected by sounds coming before and after it, and natural variability in
speech (accent) and noise. These factors make it difficult for speech sounds
to be clear, thus making brain have difficulty in determining what words it is
really hearing. Due to these factors affecting speech perception, in 1986,
James McClelland and Jeffrey Elman proposed a theory called the TRACE
model.

SPEECH PERCEPTION – SPEECH THEORY

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III. Process and Model

The Trace Model is using the various cues that are presented in speech such
as Speech sound (Phoneme), Features of a speech, and words which all
have their own way of helping in decoding a single word. The model would be
divided into 3 subparts, Phoneme level (Phoneme meaning the smallest unit
of sound in a word), Word Level and Feature Level. At the phoneme level, the
brain would process all of the Speech sounds that were heard in such as the
p sound in cup. Then next would be the Feature, is described as how the
speech sound sounds, which is divided into 7 dimensions being to define how
the word would sound like. Then lastly would be the word level, basing from
the pronunciation of the word the brain would think on words that would
sound similar to the word and eliminate those that would not match to the
previously established levels

For example, when a speaker said “red”, the listener considers the physical
attributes of the speech sounds, context, and meaning. The listener may hear
/e/ and /d/ and guess that the words is bed, but if heard in a sentence like
“favorite color”, bed would not make sense. The mind will try something to
look for other semantics to match the word heard.

Nevertheless, according to the TRACE model, it does not always work that
way.

SPEECH PERCEPTION – SPEECH THEORY

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IV. Summary
To address the problems regarding speech perception, namely the extension of
speech by time, intersection of phonemes, articulations being affected by sounds,
and variability in speech and noise, researchers found a way to solve it through
connectionist interactive activation model, also known as the TRACE model. The
TRACE model theory was proposed by James McClelland and Jeffrey Elman which
works by positioning processing units into three separated layers, allowing
recognition in the brain. The three subparts dividing the connectionist network model
of speech perception are the Phonology Level, where the smallest unit of sound is
processed by the brain, the Feature Level, wherein the speech sounds are defined
as how it sounds like, and lastly, the Word Level, where the brain would look for
words that sound similar to the words pronounced and eliminate those who do not
match
These subparts of the TRACE model helps the brain to recognise the sound
pronounced better.

References:
Hannagan, T., Magnuson, J., Grainger, J. (2013). Spoken word recognition without a
TRACE. Frontiers in Psychology. Retrieved from:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00563/full?fbclid=IwAR1fuWpqFr-aPBgNs2n7-
j0_Dx0iBDsaV0Biv8Vr_ICMYHHIDsF7kT1AAU0

McClelland, J., Elman, J. (1986). The TRACE Model of Speech Perception. Cognitive
Psychology. Retrieved from: https://crl.ucsd.edu/~elman/Papers/McClellandElman86.pdf?
fbclid=IwAR0SNx2GDFnPWtqb2AOOhg8nAt0o0rT79jh2P9xDxhhq2FBrlO7rGOw4Q7g

Scarborough. (2005). Theories of Speech Perception. Phonetics. Retrieved from:

https://stanford.edu/class/linguist205/index_files/Handout%2015%20-%20Theories%20of%20Speech
%20Perception.pdf?fbclid=IwAR15LAOm5YhBI01wH8bsoeeBv2Sr9VwA7RlTsZZ148sLWmutDkMV1J4B6sE

Justin, S. (2014). Understanding the TRACE and cohort models. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=oK4EQCYdXwM&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3Aj1gw9UhNMx7aRe7OGSrv
2aoMqiM7iZWrvzV7VaaEYlfqjUsbp-ZThtw
Psycholinguistics/Models of Speech Perception. (2018). Retrieved from
https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Psycholinguistics/Models_of_Speech_Perception#TRACE_Model

SPEECH PERCEPTION – SPEECH THEORY