知觉作为人类认知过程的重要组成部分,是一种复杂的心理现象。知觉模式不仅与被感知物体的物理属性密切有关,亦受到感知者生理和心理属性的影响。围绕知觉特性的研究发现在某些情况下感知者可将物理量的连续变化感知为心理量的突然变化,
Categorical perception(CP)is the unique phenomenon that gradually morphed physical feature in a stimulus continuum tends to be perceived as discrete representations.CP has been evidenced in several modalities in the sensor perception.The first study of CP of phonetic perception was performed in 1957.However,the early CP studies focused on segmental features.The first study of CP of pitch contours was performed until 1976.This article will review the results of previous studies focus on the categorical perception applies to the lexical tone perception.