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Psychological Phenomena

Phonemic Restoration Effect

Perception and Psychophysics Effects

The phonemic restoration effect is a perceptual phenomenon in which sounds that are actually missing from a speech signal can be restored by the brain and seem to be heard even though they were never physically present. The psychologist Richard M. Warren first documented the effect in a 1970 paper, in which he replaced individual speech sounds in recorded sentences with an unrelated noise such as a cough. Most listeners in Warren's experiments did not notice that any sound was missing, since their brains filled in the gap automatically.

Facts
Core Claim
sounds actually missing from a speech signal can be restored by the brain and may appear to be heard 1
First Described Year
1970 1
Classification
Type of Phenomenon
Perceptual Phenomenon 1
Sources
1. Phonemic restoration effect - Wikipedia
  • Intro, sentence 1
    sounds actually missing from a speech signal can be restored by the brain and may appear to be heard
  • Background section
    The phonemic restoration effect was first documented in a 1970 paper by Richard M. Warren
  • lead section, phenomenon-kind classification
    The phonemic restoration effect is a perceptual phenomenon in which sounds that are actually missing from a speech signal can be restored by the brain and seem to be heard even though they were never physically present.
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