Mapping multidimensional perceptual consonant space for place contrasts

Abstract

The nature and interaction of known cues for the perception of place distinctions were evaluated with a number of behavioral measures. The perceptual role of release burst and both F2 and F3 onset transitions were manipulated factorially in each of several vowel contexts. Within each vowel context, perception was evaluated using classification (labeling) tasks and category goodness ratings for each CV syllable, as well as ratings of similarity between pairs of CV syllables both within and across perceptual categories. For each of the vowel contexts, the results exhibit a generally high degree of consistency across the various behavioral measures. The findings provide complex, multidimensional perspectives of perceptual consonant space for each vowel. Within the perceptual space representations, some category boundaries are simple, whereas other boundaries are complex, being defined interactively across several variables. Perceptual quality or category goodness is seen to vary systematically within categories. Although the representation of the perceptual spaces are relatively complex, cross sections of the space are consistent with findings from earlier investigations, which utilized labeling tasks for unidimensional stimulus variables. [Research supported by a grant from AFOSR.]