James R. Sawusch

Professor Emeritus

Email: jsawusch@buffalo.edu


|Sawusch Home | Background | Research | Publications | Teaching | Online Course Materials | Speech Research Lab - SRL |

Professional Background

Education:

University Of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Michigan) 1972, B.A., Mathematics

Indiana University (Bloomington, Indiana) 1976, Ph.D., Psychology (Computer Science minor)

Professional Memberships:

Acoustical Society of America
Center for Cognitive Science, University at Buffalo
Center for Hearing and Deafness, University at Buffalo
Psychonomic Society

Professional Experience:

Assistant Professor to Professor, State University of New York at Buffalo, Department of Psychology, 1976-2015

Principle Investigator, National Science Foundation grant Auditory to phonetic coding in consonant recognition, 1978-1980

Principle Investigator, National Institute of Mental Health grant Speech perception: An information processing approach, 1978-1982

Consulting Editor, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1980-1993

Principle Investigator, National Institutes of Health (NIDCD) grant Auditory and phonetic coding of speech, 1983-2005

Co-investigator, National Institutes of Health (NIDCD) training grant Development of Spoken Language, 1992-1996

Principle Investigator, National Instutes of Health training grant Development of Spoken Language, 1996-1997

Chair, Department of Psychology, State University of New York at Buffalo, 1996-1999

President's Review Board (University at Buffalo appointments, promotions and tenure committee) 2000-2006 (Chair 2003-2006)

Member of editorial board, Psychological Science, 2004-2007

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Teaching - [LINK TO ONLINE COURSE MATERIALS]

Program in Cognitive Psychology

Undergraduate courses:

Cognitive Processes, Memory, Psycholinguistics, Research Methods in Psychology, and Sensation and Perception

Graduate courses:

Cognitive Processes, Memory, Perception, Speech Perception, and Seminars on Speech Processes, Signal Processing, Psychoacoustics, and Language and Aging

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Research

Research Interests:

My research focuses on the auditory and phonetic processing of speech that maps the sounds of language onto words. Within this framework, there are three primary foci of the research program. The first is on the mapping of acoustic qualities of sound onto phonetic segments. This includes research on the acoustic structure of speech and basic perceptual processes that code this information. The second focus is on the nature of the segmental representation of speech that mediates word recognition and the level of detail about the sound and the talker that it includes. The third concerns the influence of higher level knowledge and the mental lexicon on phonetic processes. Experimental studies with human listeners examine both the capabilities of the human perceptual system and the nature of on-line, real-time perceptual processes. Computational modeling is used as an aid to understanding and explaining the nature of speech and to explore the adequacy of various theories of speech perception.

Recent studies examined the role of the shape of the short-term spectrum in phonetic categories, influences of speaking rate and event rate on phonetic perception both in English and other languages, and the influence of lexical status and lexical neighborhood on phonetic perception.

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Select publications and proceedings:

Sawusch J. R. & Pisoni, D. B. (1974). On the identification of place and voicing features in synthetic stop consonants. Journal of Phonetics, 2, 201-214.

Pisoni, D. B. & Sawusch, J. R. (1975). Some stages of processing in speech perception. In A. Cohen & S. Nooteboom (Eds.), Structure and process in speech perception  (pp. 16-34). Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.

Sawusch, J. R. (1976). Selective adaptation effects on end-point stimuli in a speech series. Perception & Psychophysics, 20, 61-65.

Sawusch, J. R. & Pisoni, D. B. (1976). Response organization and selective adaptation to speech sounds. Perception & Psychophysics, 20, 413-418.

Sawusch, J. R. (1977). Peripheral and central processes in selective adaptation of place of articulation in stop consonants. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 62,  738-750.

Sawusch, J. R. (1977). Processing of place information in stop consonants. Perception & Psychophysics, 22, 417-426.

Sawusch, J. R. & Pisoni, D. B. (1977). Simple and contingent adaptation effects for place of articulation in stop consonants. Perception & Psychophysics, 23, 125-131.

Sawusch, J. R. & Nusbaum, H. C. (1979). Contextual effects in vowel perception I: Anchor induced contrast effects. Perception & Psychophysics, 25, 292-302.

Bell-Berti, F., Raphael, L. J., Pisoni, D. B. & Sawusch, J. R. (1979). Some relationships between speech production and perception. Phonetica, 36, 373-383.

Sawusch, J. R., Nusbaum, H.C. & Schwab, E. C. (1980). Contextual effects in vowel perception II: Evidence for two processing mechanisms. Perception & Psychophysics, 27, 421-434.

Sawusch, J. R. & Jusczyk, P.W. (1981). Adaptation and contrast in the perception of voicing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 7, 408-421.

Schwab, E. C., Sawusch, J. R. & Nusbaum, H. C. (1981). The role of second formant transitions in the stop-semivowel distinction. Perception & Psychophysics, 29, 121-128.

Nusbaum, H. C., Schwab, E. C. & Sawusch, J. R. (1983). The role of "chirp" identification in duplex perception. Perception & Psychophysics, 33, 323-332.

Sawusch, J. R. & Nusbaum, H. C. (1983). Auditory and phonetic processes in place perception for stops. Perception & Psychophysics, 34, 560- 568.

Katz, J., Chertoff, M. & Sawusch, J. R. (1984). Dichotic training. The Journal of Auditory Research, 24, 251-264.

Sawusch, J. R. & Mullennix, J. W. (1985). When selective adaptation and contrast are distinct: A reply to Diehl, Kluender and Parker. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 11, 242-250.

Garrison, L. F. & Sawusch, J. R. (1986). Adaptation of place perception for stops: Effects of spectral match between adaptor and test series. Perception & Psychophysics, 40, 419-430.

Sawusch, J. R. (1986). Auditory and phonetic coding of speech. In E.C. Schwab & H. C. Nusbaum (Eds.), Pattern recognition by humans and machines: Speech perception, Volume 1.  (pp. 51-88). New York: Academic Press.

Tomiak, G. R., Mullennix, J.W. & Sawusch, J.R. (1987). Integral processing of phonemes: Evidence for a phonetic mode of perception. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 81,  755-764.

Sawusch, J. R. (1991). Invariant auditory attributes and a model of speech perception. In Proceedings of the XIIth International Congress of Phonetic Sciences: Vol. 1. (pp. 63-67). Aix-en-Provence, France: Publications de l'Universite de Provence.

Mullennix, J. W., Sawusch, J.R.& Garrison-Shaffer, L. (1992). Automaticity and the detection of speech. Memory and Cognition, 20,  40-50.

Sawusch, J. R. (1992). Auditory metrics for speech perception. In M. E. H. Schouten (Ed.), The processing of speech: From the auditory periphery to word recognition. (pp. 315-321). Berline: Mouton de Gruyter.

Sawusch, J. R. & Gagnon, D. A. (1995) Auditory coding, cues, and coherence in phonetic perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 21, 635-652.

Newman, R. S. & Sawusch, J. R. (1996). Perceptual normalization for speaking rate: Effects of temporal distance. Perception & Psychophysics, 58, 540-560.

Sawusch, J. R. (1996). Effects of duration and formant movement on vowel perception. In ICSLP 96: Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Spoken Language Processing. Wilmington, DE: University of Delaware, Alfred I duPont Institute.

Sawusch, J. R. (1996) Instrumentation and methodology for the study of speech perception. In N. Lass (Ed.), Principles of experimental phonetics. (pp. 525-550). St. Louis, MO: Mosby.

Turk, A. E. & Sawusch, J. R. (1996). The processing of duration and amplitude cues to prominence. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 99, 3782-3790.

Newman, R. S., Sawusch, J. R., & Luce, P.A. (1997). Lexical neighborhood effects in phonetic processing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 23, 873-889.

Turk, A. E. & Sawusch, J. R. (1997). The domain of accentual lengthening in American English. Journal of Phonetics, 25, 25-41.

Sawusch, J.R. (1998). Acoustic correlates and perceptual cues in speech. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 21(2),  283-284. (Commentary on Sussman, Fruchter, Hilbert, & Sirosh: Linear correlates in the speech signal: The orderly output constraint.)

Newman, R. S., Sawusch, J. R. & Luce, P.A. (2000). Underspecification and phoneme frequency in speech perception. In M. Broe & J. Pierrehumbert (Eds.) Papers in Laboratory Phoology V: Language acquisition and the lexicon. (pp. 298-311) Cambridge, UK : Cambridge University Press.

Sawusch, J. R. & Newman, R. S. (2000). Perceptual normalization for speaking rate II: Effects of signal discontinuities. Perception & Psychophysics, 62, 285-300.

Benedict, R. H. B., Shucard, D. W., Santa Maria, M. P., Shucard, J. L., Abara, J. P., Coad, M. L., Wack, D., Sawusch, J. R., & Lockwood, A. H. (2002). Covert auditory attention generates activation in Rostral/Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 14 (4), 637-645.

Sawusch, J. R. (2005). Acoustic analysis and synthesis of speech. In D. B. Pisoni & R. Remez (Eds.), The handbook of speech perception. (pp. 7-27) Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

Newman, R. S., Sawusch, J. R., & Luce, P. A. (2005). Do post-onset segments define a lexical neighborhood? Memory and Cognition, 33 (6), 941-960.

Clarke-Davidson, C. M., Luce, P. A. & Sawusch, J. R. (2008). Does perceptual learning in speech reflect changes in phonetic category representation or decision bias? Perception & Psychophysics, 70 (4), 604-618.

Newman, R. S. & Sawusch, J. R. (2009). Perceptual normalization for speaking rate III: Effects of the rate of one voice on perception of another. Journal of Phonetics, 37, 46-65.

Welch, T. E., Sawusch, J. R., & Dent, M. L. (2009). Effects of syllable-final segment duration on the identification of synthetic speech continua by birds and humans. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 126 (5), 2779-2787.

Newman, R. S., Sawusch, J. R., & Wunnenberg, T. (2011). Cues and cue interactions in segmenting words in fluent speech. Journal of Memory and Language, 64 (4), 460-476.

 

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The Speech Research Laboratory  - (SRL)


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last update: 19-Oct-2011