Alvin Liberman (1917-2000) was a psychologist whose ideas set the agenda for fifty years of research in the psychology of speech perception and laid the groundwork for modern computer speech synthesis and the understanding of critical issues in cognitive science. He took a biological perspective on language and his 'nativist' approach was often controversial as well as being influential. He was a professor of psychology at the University of Connecticut and of linguistics at Yale University. He was also President of Haskins Laboratories from 1975 through 1986. His paper on the "Perception of the Speech Code" in 1967 remains one of the most cited papers in the psychological literature. He is also known for his pioneering work with Dr. Franklin S. Cooper on the development of the reading machine for the blind in the early 1950s and for the development of the "motor theory" of speech perception with Ignatius Mattingly in the 1960s and 1970s. Along with his wife, Isabelle Liberman, he elucidated the "alphabetic principle" and its relationship to phonemic awareness and phonological awareness in reading. He was a member of the National Academies of Science and of many other distinguished scientific societies. A psychologist is a scientist and/or clinician who studies psychology, the systematic investigation of the human mind, including behavior and cognition. ... Speech perception refers to the processes by which humans are able to interpret and understand the sounds used in language. ... Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. ... Cognitive science is usually defined as the scientific study either of mind or of intelligence (e. ... Psychology is an academic and applied field involving the scientific study of mental processes and behavior. ... It has been suggested that Torrey Life Science be merged into this article or section. ... Linguistics is the scientific study of language. ... Yale redirects here. ... Haskins Laboratories is an independent, international, multidisciplinary community of researchers conducting basic research on spoken and written language. ... A reading machine is a piece of Assistive Technology that allows blind people to access printed materials. ... Speech perception refers to the processes by which humans are able to interpret and understand the sounds used in language. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Phonemic Awareness is a subset of phonological awareness in which listeners are able to distinguish phonemes, the smallest units of sound. ... Phononological awareness is often confused with phonics but it is really a precursor to phonics. ... Reading is a process of retrieving and comprehending some form of stored information or ideas. ... President Harding and the National Academy of Sciences at the White House, Washington, DC, April 1921 The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine. ...

Bibliography

• Cooper, F. S., Liberman, A. M., and J. M. Borst. (1951). The interconversion of audible and visible patterns as a basis for research on the perception of speech. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 37, 318-325.
• Liberman, A. M. (1957). Some results of research on speech perception. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 29, 117-123.
• Liberman, A. M., Ingemann, F., Lisker, L., Delattre, P. C., and F. S. Cooper. (1959). Minimal rules for synthesizing speech. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 31, 1490-1499.
• Liberman, A. M., Cooper, F. S., Shankweiler, D. P., & M. Studdert-Kennedy. (1967). Perception of the speech code. Psychological Review, 74, 431-461.
• Liberman, A. M., & I. G. Mattingly. (1985). The motor theory of speech perception revised. Cognition, 21, 1-36.
• Liberman, I. Y., Shankweiler, D., & Liberman, A. M. (1989). The alphabetic principle and learning to read. In D. Shankweiler & I. Y. Liberman (Eds.), Phonology and Reading Disability: Solving the Reading Puzzle. Research Monograph Series. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

External links

• Haskins Laboratories tribute[1]
• D. H. Whalen, Alvin Liberman's legacy[2]
• Obituary by Michael Studdert-Kennedy[3]
• Obituary by Bjorn Lindblom[4]
• National Academies Press: Phonological awareness and early reading skills[5]
• Smithsonian Speech Synthesis History Project[6]