Property detectors for bursts and transitions in speech perception

Abstract

Relevant acoustic cues for signaling place of articulation values for stop consonants include the frequency of the burst and the range of the F2 and F3 transitions. A series of adaptation experiments was initiated to investigate the relative importance of these cues in perception. The test continuum consisted of 14 synthetic stimuli in which F2 and F3 were systematically altered to range along the [b d g] phonetic dimension. The adapting stimuli consisted of: full cues in which the place of articulation dimension was signaled by burst as well as transitions; partial cues in which place was signaled by transitions only; and conflicting cues in which the burst frequency signaled one phonetic dimension (e.g., [d]), whereas the transitions signaled another phonetic dimension (e.g., [g]). Adaptation with either the partial or full cue produced significant shifts in the place of articulation boundaries, with the full cue producing a slightly larger adaptation effect. The conflicting cue produced no significant shifts in adaptation. These results are interpreted in terms of a model that postulates a set of property detectors sensitive to acoustic events at stimulus onset. [Supported in part by an NIH grant.]