perception (n.)

The general sense of this term is found in PSYCHOLINGUISTICS, where it refers to the process of receiving and decoding spoken, written or signed input. The underlying process is one of matching a set of cues to a stored representation. In PHONETICS, the perceptual process requires that listeners take into account not only the ACOUSTIC CUES present in the speech signal, but also their own knowledge of the sound patterns of their LANGUAGE, in order to interpret what they hear. The term is usually contrasted with PRODUCTION. Perceptual (= data-driven) processes are often contrasted with conceptual (= knowledge-driven) processes.