Variable perceptual potency of the initial 20 ms time window

Abstract

The major focus of this experiment was examination of the contribution or “perceptual potency” of the initial 20 ms “time window” associated with voiceless stop consonant release. An electronic gating procedure was used to achieve consonant burst elimination; the remaining aspiration + vocalic transition + vowel (A + VT + V) segments of six meaningful voiceless stop + vowel CV and eve syllables (/pi, ti, ki, pap, tap, kap/) were presented to 30 adult female listeners for identification. Each stimulus syllable was originally produced in sentence-initial position within a constant carrier phrase at slow, moderate, and fast rates of articulation. Listeners were presented the segments from each target syllable both with the accompanying carrier phrase and in “isolation”. Although no advantage for carrier phrase context was observed, the perceptual potency of the 20 ms time window was not constant but varied significantly as a function of both type of syllable construction and rate of articulation.