Laboratory phonology is an approach to phonology

Phonology

Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...

 that de-emphasizes the role of phonological theory, and instead emphasizes the importance of careful laboratory studies of human speech. The central goal of laboratory phonology is "gaining an understanding of the relationship between the cognitive and physical aspects of human speech" through the use of an interdisciplinary approach that promotes scholarly exchange across disciplines, bridging linguistics

Linguistics

Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....

 with psychology

Psychology

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

, computer science

Computer science

Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...

, etc.

Laboratory phonology is particularly connected with the Association for Laboratory Phonology

Association for Laboratory Phonology

The Association for Laboratory Phonology is a non-profit professional society for researchers interested in the sound structure of language. It was founded to promote the scientific study of all aspects of phonetics and phonology of spoken and signed languages through scholarly exchange across...

, which was founded to promote the approach. Among the researchers associated with laboratory phonology are Janet Pierrehumbert

Janet Pierrehumbert

Janet Pierrehumbert is a professor of linguistics at Northwestern University whose research uses experimental and computational methods to study the sound structure of language. She developed an intonational model which includes a grammar of intonation patterns and an explicit algorithm for...

, Mary Beckman

Mary Beckman

Mary E. Beckman is a Professor of Linguistics at the Ohio State University. She edited the Journal of Phonetics from 1990 to 1994. Perhaps her most significant contribution to linguistics is the fact that in 1987, together with John Kingston, she organized the first Laboratory Phonology conference...

, and D. Robert Ladd, who co-authored a paper discussing the approach.