Abstract
Discrimination often steady-state synthetic English vowels was measured in Old World monkeys (Macaca, Cercopithecus) and humans using a repeating standard AX procedure and positive-reinforcement operant conditioning techniques. All monkeys had difficulty discriminating spectrally similar vowels such as |ɑ-Λ| and |ν-μ|, but macaque monkeys were superior to cercopithecus monkeys. Human reaction times reflected spectral similarity and correlated with monkey percent correct discriminations. Macaque DLs for formant frequency changes along vowel continuua |ε-æ| and |i-ɪ| were about 30 Hz, compared to about 10 Hz for humans. Formant filtering and sensation level variation had only minor effects on DLs. Results are related to other comparative psychoacoustic data and vocal communication in the various monkey species. [Work supported by NIH and the Deafness Research Foundation.]
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