Vowel constriction effects on the perception of F 1 offset and vowel duration cues for word final stop consonant voicing

Abstract

The perception of voicing in final velar stop consonants was investigated by systematically varying vowel duration and change in frequency of the final F 1 transition. Several CVC continua were synthesized for each of three vowels, [i, ɪ, æ] which represent a range of tongue constriction values. Subjects used a scaling procedure in responding to these stimuli under both open and closed response set formats. The findings of this study show that both vowel duration and F 1 offset cues influence the perception of final consonant voicing, with the latter more salient in open than constricted vowels and the former more important in constricted than open vowels. In addition, individual preferences for either vowel duration or F 1 offset cues were observed, and these predilections were related to the vowel constriction feature. In summary, the results show that F 1 offset cues were perceived more invariantly as + voice than vowel duration cues across vowel contexts.