Abstract
For stimuli modeling stop consonants varying in the acoustic correlates of voice onset time (VOT), human listeners are more likely to perceive stimuli with lower f0's as voiced consonants--a pattern of perception that follows regularities in English speech production. The present study examines the basis of this observation. One hypothesis is that lower f0's enhance perception of voiced stops by virtue of perceptual interactions that arise from the operating characteristics of the auditory system. A second hypothesis is that this perceptual pattern develops as a result of experience with f0-voicing covariation. In a test of these hypotheses, Japanese quail learned to respond to stimuli drawn from a series varying in VOT through training with one of three patterns of f0-voicing covariation. Voicing and f0 varied in the natural pattern (shorter VOT, lower f0), in an inverse pattern (shorter VOT, higher f0), or in a random pattern (no f0-voicing covariation). Birds trained with stimuli that had no f0-voicing covariation exhibited no effect of f0 on response to novel stimuli varying in VOT. For the other groups, birds' responses followed the experienced pattern of covariation. These results suggest f0 does not exert an obligatory influence on categorization of consonants as [VOICE] and emphasize the learnability of covariation among acoustic characteristics of speech.
Highlights
Among the world’s languages, fundamental frequency ( f 0) and voicing tend to covary
Perception of voiced versus voiceless consonants follows the regularities of speech production
Using distributions of f 0 and VOT values rather than individual stimulie.g., one stimulus with a low f 0 versus one with a high f 0͒ allowed for a more sensitive test of interactions between f 0 and VOT because it encouraged quail to generalize to novel stimuli
Summary
Among the world’s languages, fundamental frequency ( f 0) and voicing tend to covary. In experiments designed to exploit this characteristic, it is possible to examine the contributions of audition to speech perception while factoring out potential effects of experience From these experiments, we have learned that nonhuman animals respond to speech categoricallyMorse and Snowdon, 1975; Kuhl and Miller, 1975, 1978; Waters and Wilson, 1976͒, exhibit phonetic context effectsDent et al, 1997; Lotto et al, 1997͒, and are sensitive to acoustic trading relationsKluender, 1991; Kluender and Lotto, 1994͒. Holt et al.: Effect of f 0 on quail’s response to VOT stimuli 765 there is the possibility of exquisite experimental control over speech experience These methods have allowed rather precise characterization of effects of experience that can be difficult to garner with human adult or infant listenerssee Holt et al, 1998 for a discussion of these issuesand have led to demonstrations that nonhuman animals exhibit learningdependent hallmarks of speech perception such as phonetic categorizationKluender et al, 1987͒ and internal phonetic category structureKluender et al, 1998; Lotto et al, 1999͒. Nonhuman animal listeners are essential for this endeavor because they allow rigorous experimental control over the characteristics of experience with f 0-voicing covariation
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