Transformation, restoration and migration: Illusions in the perception of speech, music and other complex sounds

This thesis questions the traditional view of speech perception as a unique form of auditory processing by exploring certain parallels between the cognitive processing of speech and other auditory stimuli. Three phenomena singularly associated with speech perception - verbal transformation, phonemic restoration and click migration - form a tri-partite basis of investigation. Each phenomenon is examined in turn in a series of experimental investigations and in each case evidence for a non-verbal analogue is found. Part 1 demonstrates that the verbal transformation effect obtains in both music and other complex non-verbal sounds, belying its original name. Part 2 finds that illusory continuity in music and other complex non-verbal sounds mirrors the function of phonemic restoration in speech. Part 3 highlights cognitive structuring in music, as revealed by click migration phenomenon, showing it to be closely analogous to that found in verbal material. The theoretical basis of each phenomenon is reassessed in the light of the experimental findings and the implications for auditory processing are examined