Alvin Liberman

Alvin Meyer Liberman (May 10, 1917 - Jan. 13, 2000) was an American 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.

His son Mark Liberman is Trustee Professor of Phonetics and Professor of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. His son M. Charles Liberman is Professor of Otology and Laryngology at Harvard Medical School. His daughter, Sarah Ash, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences and in the Department of Animal Sciences, at the North Carolina State University.

Education
Alvin M. Liberman received his A.B. degree from the University of Missouri–Columbia in 1938, his M.A. degree from the University of Missouri–Columbia in 1939  and his Ph.D. in psychology from Yale University in 1942.

Honors

 * National Academy of Sciences
 * 1988 F. O. Schmitt Medal and Prize in Neuroscience
 * Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, American Psychological Association, 1980
 * American Academy of Arts and Sciences
 * Warren Medal, Society of Experimental Psychologists
 * Docteur Honoris Causa, Universite Libre de Bruxelles
 * Honorary Doctor of Science Degree, SUNY Binghamton, New York
 * University of Connecticut Alumni Association Award for Excellence in Research
 * University of Connecticut Alumni Association Distinguished Professor
 * Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, 1964-65
 * Fellow, Acoustical Society of America
 * Fellow, American Psychological Association
 * Guggenheim Fellow, 1964-65
 * Medal, College de France