Recycling sequences of brief steady‐state vowels cannot be heard as a succesion of vowels, but instead are transformed into syllables and words [R. M. Warren et al., Percept. Psychophys. 47, 423–432 (1990)]. With continued listening, perceptual reorganization occurs and new verbal forms are reported. The present study examined the effect of repetition frequency (vowel durations) and stimulus complexity (number of vowels) upon the rate and nature of perceptual reorganization. Separate groups listened to five‐item sequences repeating at rates of 240, 120, or 80/min (vowel durations of 50, 100, and 150 ms). Across rates, equal numbers of stimulus repetitions produced equal numbers of changes and forms. When five‐ and ten‐item sequences (vowel durations of 100 and 50 ms) were each presented at 120 repetitions per minute, the ten‐item sequences evoked fewer changes and forms. Of the total of 4039 forms, all but three followed the rules for English syllabification. It would appear that the organization of phonetic sequences occurs at the syllabic level. [Work supported by NIH and AFOSR.]Recycling sequences of brief steady‐state vowels cannot be heard as a succesion of vowels, but instead are transformed into syllables and words [R. M. Warren et al., Percept. Psychophys. 47, 423–432 (1990)]. With continued listening, perceptual reorganization occurs and new verbal forms are reported. The present study examined the effect of repetition frequency (vowel durations) and stimulus complexity (number of vowels) upon the rate and nature of perceptual reorganization. Separate groups listened to five‐item sequences repeating at rates of 240, 120, or 80/min (vowel durations of 50, 100, and 150 ms). Across rates, equal numbers of stimulus repetitions produced equal numbers of changes and forms. When five‐ and ten‐item sequences (vowel durations of 100 and 50 ms) were each presented at 120 repetitions per minute, the ten‐item sequences evoked fewer changes and forms. Of the total of 4039 forms, all but three followed the rules for English syllabification. It would appear that the organization of phone...