ABSTRACT
For humans, speech is the most important acoustic signal, and the perception of speech the most important function of the auditory system. This chapter describes the complex processes that underlie the identification of auditory objects, using the perception of speech as an example. Speech production is considered first, and the problems the auditory system faces due to the huge variability in speech sounds and interference by other sounds. The auditory processes underlying speech perception are then considered, including neural mechanisms. We discover that sound identification does not depend solely on the physical characteristics of the stimulus but also depends on cognitive factors and context. The identification of sounds such as speech is largely an interpretation of the acoustic information that arrives at our ears.>
