Dennis Norris
Biographic Data
| ID | 3602542 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Dennis Norris |
| GIVEN NAMES | Dennis |
| FAMILY NAME | Norris |
| SIGNATURE | NORRIS D |
| AFFILIATIONS | MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9257-317X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 23 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1984 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Why might there be lexical-prelexical feedback in speech recognition
The differential effects of consonant and vowel diacritics in Arabic
Much recent research on the front end of visual word recognition has focused on how letters with and without diacritic marks are identified. In this study we report three masked priming letter match experiments which examine the processing of two types of diacritic marks in Arabic, a language/writing system rich in diacritics. Experiment 1 focused on diacritic dots that are obligatory and signal a phonemic contrast in consonants. The results show…
What masked priming effects with abbreviations can tell us about abstract letter identities
More why, less how
Science regularly experiences periods in which simply describing the world is prioritised over attempting to explain it. Cognition, this journal, came into being some 45 years ago as an attempt to lay one such period to rest; without doubt, it has helped create the current cognitive science climate in which theory is decidedly welcome. Here we summarise the reasons why a theoretical approach is imperative in our field, and call attention to some …
Even an activated long-term memory system still needs a separate short-term store
In Norris (2017), I explained why the notion of activated LTM (long-term memory) combined with a focus of attention was unable to perform the computations required to support short-term memory (STM) and argued that those extra computations must require a separate STM system. Cowan (2019) made the alternative proposal that this full set of computations is better conceptualized as a unitary system of activated LTM. To this he added a pointer system…
Short-term memory and long-term memory are still different
A commonly expressed view is that short-term memory (STM) is nothing more than activated long-term memory. If true, this would overturn a central tenet of cognitive psychology-the idea that there are functionally and neurobiologically distinct short- and long-term stores. Here I present an updated case for a separation between short- and long-term stores, focusing on the computational demands placed on any STM system. STM must support memory for …
How the Bayesians got their beliefs (and what those beliefs actually are)
Bowers and Davis (2012) criticize Bayesian modelers for telling "just so" stories about cognition and neuroscience. Their criticisms are weakened by not giving an accurate characterization of the motivation behind Bayesian modeling or the ways in which Bayesian models are used and by not evaluating this theoretical framework against specific alternatives. We address these points by clarifying our beliefs about the goals and status of Bayesian mod…
Shortlist B
A Bayesian model of continuous speech recognition is presented. It is based on Shortlist (D. Norris, 1994; D. Norris, J. M. McQueen, A. Cutler, & S. Butterfield, 1997) and shares many of its key assumptions: parallel competitive evaluation of multiple lexical hypotheses, phonologically abstract prelexical and lexical representations, a feedforward architecture with no online feedback, and a lexical segmentation algorithm based on the viability of…
The Dynamic Nature of Speech Perception
The speech perception system must be flexible in responding to the variability in speech sounds caused by differences among speakers and by language change over the lifespan of the listener. Indeed, listeners use lexical knowledge to retune perception of novel speech (Norris, McQueen, & Cutler, 2003). In that study, Dutch listeners made lexical decisions to spoken stimuli, including words with an ambiguous fricative (between [f] and [s]), in eith…
Perceptual learning in speech
Merging information in speech recognition
Top-down feedback does not benefit speech recognition; on the contrary, it can hinder it. No experimental data imply that feedback loops are required for speech recognition. Feedback is accordingly unnecessary and spoken word recognition is modular. To defend this thesis, we analyse lexical involvement in phonemic decision making. TRACE (McClelland & Elman 1986), a model with feedback from the lexicon to prelexical processes, is unable to account…
Shortlist
The monolingual nature of speech segmentation by bilinguals
The role of strong syllables in segmentation for lexical access.
A model of speech segmentation in a stress language is proposed, according to which the occurrence of a strong syllable triggers segmentation of the speech signal, whereas occurrence of a weak syllable does not trigger segmentation. We report experiments in which listeners detected words embedded in nonsense bisyllables more slowly when the bisyllable had two strong syllables than when it had a strong and a weak syllable; mint was detected more s…
Phoneme identification and the lexicon
The syllable's differing role in the segmentation of French and English
Juncture detection
The 'units-of-perception' hypothesis has led psycholinguists to concern themselves with units of classification rather than with the more important process of speech segmentation. This paper argues that segmentation rather than classification of the speech signal is the primary prelexical process in speech perception. We claim further that universal juncture detection processes alone can account for processing differences between French and Engli…
Comprehension Strategies and Lexical Priming
Bever (1970) has proposed a number of strategies which can be applied during comprehension. According to one of these strategies, noun—verb—noun sequences are assumed to correspond to "actor—action—object." Using a sentence classification task, Experiment 1 provides evidence that such a strategy is indeed employed by adults. The results of Experiment 1, in conjunction with the data from a lexical decision task using the same materials (Experiment…
Short-term memory and long-term memory are still different
A commonly expressed view is that short-term memory (STM) is nothing more than activated long-term memory. If true, this would overturn a central tenet of cognitive psychology-the idea that there are functionally and neurobiologically distinct short- and long-term stores. Here I present an updated case for a separation between short- and long-term stores, focusing on the computational demands placed on any STM system. STM must support memory for …
How the Bayesians got their beliefs (and what those beliefs actually are)
Bowers and Davis (2012) criticize Bayesian modelers for telling "just so" stories about cognition and neuroscience. Their criticisms are weakened by not giving an accurate characterization of the motivation behind Bayesian modeling or the ways in which Bayesian models are used and by not evaluating this theoretical framework against specific alternatives. We address these points by clarifying our beliefs about the goals and status of Bayesian mod…
The Dynamic Nature of Speech Perception
The speech perception system must be flexible in responding to the variability in speech sounds caused by differences among speakers and by language change over the lifespan of the listener. Indeed, listeners use lexical knowledge to retune perception of novel speech (Norris, McQueen, & Cutler, 2003). In that study, Dutch listeners made lexical decisions to spoken stimuli, including words with an ambiguous fricative (between [f] and [s]), in eith…
Juncture detection
The 'units-of-perception' hypothesis has led psycholinguists to concern themselves with units of classification rather than with the more important process of speech segmentation. This paper argues that segmentation rather than classification of the speech signal is the primary prelexical process in speech perception. We claim further that universal juncture detection processes alone can account for processing differences between French and Engli…
Comprehension Strategies and Lexical Priming
Bever (1970) has proposed a number of strategies which can be applied during comprehension. According to one of these strategies, noun—verb—noun sequences are assumed to correspond to "actor—action—object." Using a sentence classification task, Experiment 1 provides evidence that such a strategy is indeed employed by adults. The results of Experiment 1, in conjunction with the data from a lexical decision task using the same materials (Experiment…
Comprehension Strategies and Lexical Priming
Bever (1970) has proposed a number of strategies which can be applied during comprehension. According to one of these strategies, noun—verb—noun sequences are assumed to correspond to "actor—action—object." Using a sentence classification task, Experiment 1 provides evidence that such a strategy is indeed employed by adults. The results of Experiment 1, in conjunction with the data from a lexical decision task using the same materials (Experiment…
Juncture detection
The 'units-of-perception' hypothesis has led psycholinguists to concern themselves with units of classification rather than with the more important process of speech segmentation. This paper argues that segmentation rather than classification of the speech signal is the primary prelexical process in speech perception. We claim further that universal juncture detection processes alone can account for processing differences between French and Engli…
The syllable's differing role in the segmentation of French and English
Phoneme identification and the lexicon
The role of strong syllables in segmentation for lexical access.
A model of speech segmentation in a stress language is proposed, according to which the occurrence of a strong syllable triggers segmentation of the speech signal, whereas occurrence of a weak syllable does not trigger segmentation. We report experiments in which listeners detected words embedded in nonsense bisyllables more slowly when the bisyllable had two strong syllables than when it had a strong and a weak syllable; mint was detected more s…
The monolingual nature of speech segmentation by bilinguals
Shortlist
Merging information in speech recognition
Top-down feedback does not benefit speech recognition; on the contrary, it can hinder it. No experimental data imply that feedback loops are required for speech recognition. Feedback is accordingly unnecessary and spoken word recognition is modular. To defend this thesis, we analyse lexical involvement in phonemic decision making. TRACE (McClelland & Elman 1986), a model with feedback from the lexicon to prelexical processes, is unable to account…
Perceptual learning in speech
The Dynamic Nature of Speech Perception
The speech perception system must be flexible in responding to the variability in speech sounds caused by differences among speakers and by language change over the lifespan of the listener. Indeed, listeners use lexical knowledge to retune perception of novel speech (Norris, McQueen, & Cutler, 2003). In that study, Dutch listeners made lexical decisions to spoken stimuli, including words with an ambiguous fricative (between [f] and [s]), in eith…
Shortlist B
A Bayesian model of continuous speech recognition is presented. It is based on Shortlist (D. Norris, 1994; D. Norris, J. M. McQueen, A. Cutler, & S. Butterfield, 1997) and shares many of its key assumptions: parallel competitive evaluation of multiple lexical hypotheses, phonologically abstract prelexical and lexical representations, a feedforward architecture with no online feedback, and a lexical segmentation algorithm based on the viability of…
How the Bayesians got their beliefs (and what those beliefs actually are)
Bowers and Davis (2012) criticize Bayesian modelers for telling "just so" stories about cognition and neuroscience. Their criticisms are weakened by not giving an accurate characterization of the motivation behind Bayesian modeling or the ways in which Bayesian models are used and by not evaluating this theoretical framework against specific alternatives. We address these points by clarifying our beliefs about the goals and status of Bayesian mod…
Short-term memory and long-term memory are still different
A commonly expressed view is that short-term memory (STM) is nothing more than activated long-term memory. If true, this would overturn a central tenet of cognitive psychology-the idea that there are functionally and neurobiologically distinct short- and long-term stores. Here I present an updated case for a separation between short- and long-term stores, focusing on the computational demands placed on any STM system. STM must support memory for …
Even an activated long-term memory system still needs a separate short-term store
In Norris (2017), I explained why the notion of activated LTM (long-term memory) combined with a focus of attention was unable to perform the computations required to support short-term memory (STM) and argued that those extra computations must require a separate STM system. Cowan (2019) made the alternative proposal that this full set of computations is better conceptualized as a unitary system of activated LTM. To this he added a pointer system…
What masked priming effects with abbreviations can tell us about abstract letter identities
More why, less how
Science regularly experiences periods in which simply describing the world is prioritised over attempting to explain it. Cognition, this journal, came into being some 45 years ago as an attempt to lay one such period to rest; without doubt, it has helped create the current cognitive science climate in which theory is decidedly welcome. Here we summarise the reasons why a theoretical approach is imperative in our field, and call attention to some …
The differential effects of consonant and vowel diacritics in Arabic
Much recent research on the front end of visual word recognition has focused on how letters with and without diacritic marks are identified. In this study we report three masked priming letter match experiments which examine the processing of two types of diacritic marks in Arabic, a language/writing system rich in diacritics. Experiment 1 focused on diacritic dots that are obligatory and signal a phonemic contrast in consonants. The results show…
Why might there be lexical-prelexical feedback in speech recognition
Psychology (16 works) · Computer Science (13 works) · Linguistics (12 works) · Phonetics and Phonology Research (11 works) · Cognition (9 works) · Cognitive psychology (9 works) · Artificial Intelligence (8 works) · Artificial Intelligence (7 works) · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism (7 works) · Natural language processing (6 works)