On the perception of /w, l, y/ and categorical perception

Abstract

The perception of /w, l, y/ was examined by giving subjects an identification test and a “same‐different” discrimination test composed of eleven 380‐msec, 3‐formant CV stimuli created on a parallel resonance synthesizer. Each stimulus consisted of an initial 90‐msec steady state portion, a 60‐msec transition, and a 230‐msec steady state portion with formant frequencies appropriate to /ε/. The second‐formant frequency of the initial steady state was varied in equal steps from 594 to 2995 Hz. The interstimulus interval in the discrimination test was 1 sec .Subjects perceived these stimuli categorically, showing good discrimination near phoneme boundaries and poor discrimination elsewhere. This finding must be interpreted in the light of recent research on the role of phonetic and acoustic memory in an explanation of categorical perception. [Ann. Report Engineering Res. Inst. Univ. Tokyo, 29, 207–214 (1970).]