Integration of Multiple Speech Segmentation Cues: A Hierarchical Framework.

TLDR

Listeners isolate words from connected speech using lexical and sublexical cues, yet how these cues combine or conflict remains unclear. This study investigates how lexical, segmental, and prosodic cues are integrated by systematically contrasting them. The authors systematically pitted lexical, segmental, and prosodic cues against each other to assess their relative influence on segmentation. Listeners hierarchically integrate cues, giving lexical > segmental > prosodic weights, and lower‑level cues dominate when contextual or lexical information is limited or noise is present.

Abstract

A central question in psycholinguistic research is how listeners isolate words from connected speech despite the paucity of clear word-boundary cues in the signal. A large body of empirical evidence indicates that word segmentation is promoted by both lexical (knowledge-derived) and sublexical (signal-derived) cues. However, an account of how these cues operate in combination or in conflict is lacking. The present study fills this gap by assessing speech segmentation when cues are systematically pitted against each other. The results demonstrate that listeners do not assign the same power to all segmentation cues; rather, cues are hierarchically integrated, with descending weights allocated to lexical, segmental, and prosodic cues. Lower level cues drive segmentation when the interpretive conditions are altered by a lack of contextual and lexical information or by white noise. Taken together, the results call for an integrated, hierarchical, and signal-contingent approach to speech segmentation.