Alvin Liberman
| Alvin Liberman | |
|---|---|
| Born |
May 10, 1917 St. Joseph, Missouri |
| Died | January 13, 2000 (aged 82) Mansfield, Connecticut |
| Occupation | Psychologist |
Alvin Meyer Liberman (/ˈlɪbərmən/; May 10, 1917 – January 13, 2000) was born in St. Joseph, Missouri. Liberman was an American psychologist. His ideas set the agenda for fifty years of psychological research in speech perception.
Liberman received his A.B. degree from the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri in 1938, his M.A. degree from the University of Missouri in 1939 [1] and his Ph.D. in psychology from Yale University in 1942 [2]. His 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 influential. He received his bachelor of arts and master of arts degrees from the University of Missouri in 1938 and 1939, respectively, and his doctor of philosophy degree from Yale University in 1942. He was a professor of psychology at the University of Connecticut and of linguistics at Yale University as well as president of Haskins Laboratories from 1975 through 1986. Liberman had a distinctive goal in mind. In order to reach this goal, he developed a project where he was to produce the sound output of a reading machine for the blind, a device that could scan, print, and produce a selective acoustic pattern for every component of the English alphabet. 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 1944. He is also known 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. After retiring，Al remained an active, influential presence in the international scientific community. His publication record, which began in 1944 with an article in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, ended in 2000 with an article, coauthored with Douglas Whalen of Haskins Laboratories，in Trends in Cognitive Sciences. Liberman continued giving well-received speeches and presentations and continued to act as a catalyst for research at various institutes such as the Brain Research Laboratory at the University of Technology in Finland. He received an award from the Finnish Academy of Sciences, the last of his many accolades. On January 13, 2000, Alvin Liberman died due to problems that occurred after heart surgery.
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