Disclosed herein is a signal processing apparatus that processes a signal transmitted over a transmission path that causes stationary distortion to occur in a waveform representing a signal value of a specific symbol in accordance with a value of a symbol transmitted before the specific symbol. The apparatus includes: storage means for storing distortion characteristics; acquisition means for acquiring the signal value of the specific symbol; correlation coefficient calculation means for calculating a correlation coefficient between the waveform representing the signal value of the specific symbol and each distortion characteristic; selection means for selecting a distortion characteristic(s) having a high correlation with the waveform representing the signal value of the specific symbol, based on the correlation coefficients; and determination means for determining the values of the symbols in the signal based on the combination of the values of the symbols corresponding to the selected distortion characteristic(s).