Identification of deleted plosives

Abstract

When vowel transitions, originating from (C)V or V(C) syllables, are presented to subjects for identification of the deleted consonants, it is generally found that VC transitions are better cues for the identification of final consonants than CV transitions are for initial consonants. However, the lower score for CV transitions could very well be due to an interfering “click sensation” caused by the abrupt spectral onset of these transitions. In the present investigation this abrupt onset was eliminated by replacing the deleted portion of the consonant with a 300-ms burst of noise. This also caused the incomplete (C)Vt or tV(C) syllable to sound more natural; it was as if the syllable emerged from or vanished into the noise. The results show that the addition of noise greatly improves the identification of deleted initial voiceless plosives. The original difference between initial and final plosive transitions disappears almost completely. [Research supported by the Netherlands Organisation for the Advancement of Pure Research (ZWO).]