Pattern recognition modeling of American English vowel identification by four different identification-proficiency levels of Korean listeners

Abstract

It has been recently reported through pattern recognition or synthesized vowel perception studies that American English listeners categorize vowels using dynamic spectral properties and duration rather than static spectral properties only (Hillenbrand et al. 1995, Hillenbrand 2013). However, Hong (2015) showed through pattern recognition modeling that Korean listeners used static spectral properties and duration when identifying English vowels. The present study extended Hong (2015) and built a logistic regression classification model to investigate which acoustic cues (static or dynamic spectral features, duration or F0) four different identification-proficiency levels of 133 Korean listeners may use to identify American English monophthongs in /hVd/ syllables. It turned out that the two upper-level groups of Korean listeners used dynamic spectral properties and duration just like American English listeners, whereas the other two lower-level groups used static spectral properties and duration.