Which type of phonetics focuses on the listener's psychoacoustic response to speech?

Perceptual phonetics is the branch of phonetics that specifically examines how listeners perceive and interpret sounds in speech. This area of study is concerned with the psychoacoustic responses of individuals, meaning it explores how the human mind processes and understands the sounds that are heard. Research in perceptual phonetics investigates aspects such as pitch, loudness, and timbre, focusing on how these auditory stimuli are analyzed and categorized by the listener's brain.

In contrast to perceptual phonetics, experimental phonetics deals more with the scientific methods used to analyze speech sounds, often through controlled experiments. Applied phonetics is focused on practical applications of phonetic principles, like speech therapy or linguistics in real-world situations. Articulatory phonetics, on the other hand, studies how speech sounds are made and produced by the vocal tract and articulators.

Thus, perceptual phonetics stands out as the domain dedicated to understanding the listener's psychological and sensory experience in response to speech sounds, making it the correct choice for this question.