F0 Difference Research Articles

Unguided virtual-reality training can enhance the oral presentation skills of high-school students

Public speaking is fundamental in our daily life, and it happens to be challenging for many people. Like all aspects of language, these skills should be encouraged early on in educational settings. However, the high number of students per class and the extensive curriculum both limit the possibilities of the training and, moreover, entail that students give short in-class presentations under great time pressure. Virtual Reality (VR) environments can help speakers and teachers meet these challenges and foster oral skills. This experimental study employs a between-subjects pre- and post-training design with four Catalan high-school student groups, a VR group (N = 30) and a Non-VR group (N = 20). Both groups gave a 2-min speech in front of a live audience before (pre-training) and after (post-training) 3 training sessions (one session per week) in which they practiced public speaking either in front of a VR audience or alone in a classroom (Non-VR). Students assessed their anxiety measures right before performing every speech and filled out a satisfaction questionnaire at the end. Pre- and post-training speeches were assessed by 15 raters, who analyzed the persuasiveness of the message and the charisma of the presenter. Speeches were also analyzed for prosodic features and gesture rate. First, results showed that self-assessed anxiety got significantly reduced at post-training for both conditions. Second, acoustic analyses of both groups' speeches show that the VR group has, unlike the Non-VR group, developed a more clear and resonant voice quality in the post-training speeches, in terms of higher cepstral-peak prominence (CPP) (although no significant differences in f0- related parameters as a function of training were obtained), as well as significantly less erosion effects than the Non-VR group. However, these differences across groups did not trigger a direct improvement on the participants' gesture rate, persuasiveness and charisma at post-training. Furthermore, students perceived the training in the VR environment to be more useful and beneficial for their future oral presentations than the Non-VR group. All in all, short unguided VR training sessions can help students feel less anxious, promote a more clear and resonant voice style, and can prevent them from experiencing an erosion effect while practicing speeches in front of a real audience.

The dual role of post-stop fundamental frequency in the production and perception of stops in Mandarin-English bilinguals

In non-tonal languages with a two-way laryngeal contrast, post-stop fundamental frequency (F0) tends to vary as a function of phonological voicing in stops, and listeners use it as a cue for stop voicing. In tonal languages, F0 is the most important acoustic correlate for tone, and listeners likewise rely heavily on F0 to differentiate tones. Given this ambiguity of F0 in its ability to signal phonological voicing and tone, how do speakers of a tonal language weight it in production and perception? Relatedly, do bilingual speakers of tonal and non-tonal languages use the same weights across different language contexts? To address these questions, the cross-linguistic performances from L1 (first language) Mandarin-L2 (second language) English bilinguals dominant in Mandarin in online production and perception experiments are compared. In the production experiment, the participant read aloud Mandarin and English monosyllabic words, the onsets of which typified their two-way laryngeal contrast. For the perception experiment, which utilized a forced-choice identification paradigm, both the English and Mandarin versions shared the same target audio stimuli, comprising monosyllables whose F0 contours were modeled after Mandarin Tone 1 and Tone 4, and whose onset was always a bilabial stop. The voice onset time of the bilabial stop and the onset F0 of the nucleus were manipulated orthogonally. The production results suggest that post-stop F0 following aspirated/voiceless stops was higher than that following unaspirated/voiced stops in both Mandarin and English production. However, the F0 difference in English was larger as compared to Mandarin, indicating that participants assigned more production weight to post-stop F0 in English than in Mandarin. On the perception side, participants used post-stop F0 as a cue in perceiving stops in both English and Mandarin, with higher post-stop F0 leading to more aspirated/voiceless responses, but they allocated more weight to post-stop F0 when interpreting audio stimuli as English words than as Mandarin words. Overall, these results argue for a dual function of F0 in cueing phonological voicing in stops and lexical tone across production and perception in Mandarin. Furthermore, they suggest that bilinguals are able to dynamically adjust even a secondary cue according to different language contexts.

The effect of age and hearing sensitivity at frequencies above 8 kHz on auditory stream segregation and speech perception.

The effects of age and mild hearing loss over the extended high-frequency (EHF) range from 9000 to 16 000 Hz on speech perception and auditory stream segregation were assessed using four groups: (1) young with normal hearing threshold levels (HTLs) over both the conventional and EHF range; (2) older with audiograms matched to those for group 1; (3) young with normal HTLs over the conventional frequency range and elevated HTLs over the EHF range; (4) older with audiograms matched to those for group 3. For speech in quiet, speech recognition thresholds and speech identification scores did not differ significantly across groups. For monosyllables in noise, both greater age and hearing loss over the EHF range adversely affected performance, but the effect of age was much larger than the effect of hearing status. Stream segregation was assessed using a rapid sequence of vowel stimuli differing in fundamental frequency (F0). Larger differences in F0 were required for stream segregation for the two groups with impaired hearing in the EHF range, but there was no significant effect of age. It is argued that impaired hearing in the EHF range is associated with impaired auditory function at lower frequencies, despite normal audiometric thresholds at those frequencies.

Prosodic Marking of Object Focus in L2 Spanish

Abstract L + H* is used for corrective focus both in American English and Peninsular Spanish, but its phonetic implementation may still differ. Furthermore, features such as longer duration or relative F0 differences correlate as well with the realization of corrective focus in both languages. For L2 speakers, the acquisition of these form-meaning associations may be constrained by patterns of transfer from the L1, universal tendencies such as the use of default intonational patterns, or development of the L2 grammar. We analyzed four acoustic features (i.e., peak alignment, pitch scaling, relative F0, and duration) as manifested in informational and corrective object focus statements elicited from 10 native Spanish speakers and 10 English-speaking learners of Spanish through a question-and-answer pairs task. Our findings reveal that while learners of Spanish can adjust the phonetic implementation of focal accents towards the target (e.g., producing earlier peaks and longer stressed vowels), L1 English features (e.g., wider pitch scaling and smaller relative F0 differences) are also manifested in their production. We discuss these findings in connection with Mennen, Ineke. 2015. Beyond segments: Towards a L2 intonation learning theory. In Elisabeth Delais-Roussarie, Mathieu Avanzi & Sophie Herment (eds.), Prosody and languages in contact, 171–188. Berlin: Springer. L2 Intonation Learning theory as well as previous studies in an effort to improve understanding of the constraining factors in the development of L2 intonational grammars.

Effects of F0 contour depth differences on school-age children’s speech recognition in a two-talker masker

This study investigated the extent to which children (ages 5–17) can take advantage of differences in fundamental frequency (F0) contour between target and masker speech to improve speech-in-speech recognition. A number of studies show that differences in F0 and F0 contour between talkers support better speech-in-speech recognition for adults, suggesting it is an important cue for recognizing speech in multitalker environments. However, children’s use of F0 contour differences during speech-in-speech recognition is less well understood. In the present study, sentence recognition was measured adaptively in a two-talker speech masker. Target and masker sentences were recorded with either normal, flat, or exaggerated F0 contours. Results revealed that children’s sentence recognition was impacted by differences in F0 contour depth in both target and masker speech, but the pattern of results differed between children and adults in some conditions. For children, the consistent nature of the flat F0 contour often had a greater impact on speech recognition thresholds (SRTs) than target/masker differences in F0 contour depth. Observed age effects did not appear to be due to limitations in children’s ability to use F0 contour differences in general but are likely related to the perceptual salience of the target contour relative to the masker.

Effects of age and musical expertise on speech-on-speech perception in adults

Speech-on-speech (SoS) perception relies on perceptual mechanisms, such as discriminating mean fundamental frequency (F0) and vocal-tract length (VTL), and cognitive mechanisms, such as selective attention and working memory. Older adults may be less sensitive to F0 differences, possibly affecting their ability to perceive different speakers. Age-related cognitive changes may lead to difficulties in attention direction and inhibition. Compared to non-musicians, musicians are reported to possess enhanced processing of acoustic features such as F0, as well as enhanced cognitive abilities such as auditory attention skills and working memory. While this intuitively could lead to a musician advantage for SoS perception, reports of musicians outperforming non-musicians on SoS tasks are inconsistent across both younger and older adults. Differences in SoS paradigms across the literature have made it difficult to directly compare musicianship advantages in SoS perception in younger and older adults, or to clarify related underlying mechanisms. In this study, we investigated the extent to which older compared to younger adults benefit from voice differences in an SoS perception task, by manipulating differences in F0 and VTL cues between target and masker speakers. Furthermore, we investigated the effect of musical expertise in younger and older adults within the same SoS task.

Organoleptic Test of Butter Substitution Formulation with Avocado Flesh (Persea Americana Mill) On the Thousand Layers Roll

The aim of this study was to describe the effect of the substitution of butter with avocado flesh on the organoleptic properties of the thousand layers roll. The second objective of this study was to describe the community's acceptance of the hedonic test on the substitution of butter with avocado flesh on a thousand layers roll. Based on the Duncan test, the entire treatment had significant differences in texture and taste. Whereas color and scent have differences in treatment F0 and F1 but have significant differences in treatment F2 and F3. This is because the texture and taste are largely determined by the level of maturity of the avocado, not all avocados can be precise and the weight ratio used between treatments. In addition, the fiber and fat in the avocado are stronger so that the more avocado content, the thicker it will be and dominate the rolled legit layer cake. In terms of quality of treatment F3 (60% butter, 40% avocado) has the highest value with color 5.68 (like category), texture (like category), scent 5.48 (somewhat like category) and taste 5.84 (like category). Of the four treatments, there was one treatment that was somewhat disliked by the panelists, namely F0 where the composition of 0% avocado butter with an inaccurate formula resulted in the finished product of rolled legit rolls, which differed greatly from the finished results of the other three treatments (F1, F2 and F3). This is because the avocado content cannot fully replace the function of butter in the thousand layers roll.

The Role of Categorical Perception and Acoustic Details in the Processing of Mandarin Tonal Alternations in Contexts: An Eye-Tracking Study.

This study investigated the perception of Mandarin tonal alternations in disyllabic words. In Mandarin, a low-dipping Tone3 is converted to a high-rising Tone2 when followed by another Tone3, known as third tone sandhi. Although previous studies showed statistically significant differences in F0 between a high-rising Sandhi-Tone3 (T3) and a Tone2, native Mandarin listeners failed to correctly categorize these two tones in perception tasks. The current study utilized the visual-world paradigm in eye-tracking to further examine whether acoustic details in lexical tone aid lexical access in Mandarin. Results showed that Mandarin listeners tend to process Tone2 as Tone2 whereas they tend to first process Sandhi-T3 as both Tone3 and Tone2, then later detect the acoustic differences between the two tones revealed by the sandhi context, and finally activate the target word during lexical access. The eye-tracking results suggest that subtle acoustic details of F0 may facilitate lexical access in automatic fashion in a tone language.

The Impact of Pitch and Timbre Cues on Auditory Grouping and Stream Segregation.

In multi-talker listening environments, the culmination of different voice streams may lead to the distortion of each source’s individual message, causing deficits in comprehension. Voice characteristics, such as pitch and timbre, are major dimensions of auditory perception and play a vital role in grouping and segregating incoming sounds based on their acoustic properties. The current study investigated how pitch and timbre cues (determined by fundamental frequency, notated as F0, and spectral slope, respectively) can affect perceptual integration and segregation of complex-tone sequences within an auditory streaming paradigm. Twenty normal-hearing listeners participated in a traditional auditory streaming experiment using two alternating sequences of harmonic tone complexes A and B with manipulating F0 and spectral slope. Grouping ranges, the F0/spectral slope ranges over which auditory grouping occurs, were measured with various F0/spectral slope differences between tones A and B. Results demonstrated that the grouping ranges were maximized in the absence of the F0/spectral slope differences between tones A and B and decreased by 2 times as their differences increased to ±1-semitone F0 and ±1-dB/octave spectral slope. In other words, increased differences in either F0 or spectral slope allowed listeners to more easily distinguish between harmonic stimuli, and thus group them together less. These findings suggest that pitch/timbre difference cues play an important role in how we perceive harmonic sounds in an auditory stream, representing our ability to group or segregate human voices in a multi-talker listening environment.

Modeling Concurrent Vowel Scores Using the Time Delay Neural Network and Multitask Learning

The difference in fundamental frequency (F0) between vowels is a segregation cue for identifying concurrent vowels. Younger listeners with normal hearing (YNH) showed that the percent identification score of both vowels improved with increasing F0 difference and asymptoted at higher F0 difference. The current study developed a deep-neural-network model consisting of a time-delay neural network and multitask learning (TDNN-MTL) to predict the concurrent vowel scores. The input to the TDNN-MTL were temporal responses of concurrent vowels obtained using the auditory-nerve model. The TDNN-MTL was trained at a 3-Hz F0 difference until the score (80%) became closer to the YNH score (85%). The TDNN-MTL learned the formant coding and aided in the segregation of concurrent vowels into dominant and recessive vowels. The total weighted loss was tailored to mimic the dominant-recessive relationship of the YNH scores. The TDNN-MTL was tested against the other five F0 differences. The TDNN-MTL model scores of both vowels were successful in predicting the YNH scores. The chi-square tests revealed that the TDNN-MTL model scores correlated well with the YNH scores compared with other F0-segregation and multi-layer perceptron models. The TDNN-MTL also correctly predicted the one vowel identification scores and F0 benefit. These findings suggest that the trained TDNN-MTL accurately predicts the formant coding of the concurrent vowels across F0 differences, which aided in capturing the YNH scores. The TDNN-MTL can be extended to validate the behavioral studies on concurrent vowels obtained across acoustic (e.g., vowel duration and level) and auditory changes (e.g., aging and hearing loss).

Pitch Perception With the Temporal Limits Encoder for Cochlear Implants.

The temporal-limits-encoder (TLE) strategy has been proposed to enhance the representation of temporal fine structure (TFS) in cochlear implants (CIs), which is vital for many aspects of sound perception but is typically discarded by most modern CI strategies. TLE works by computing an envelope modulator that is within the temporal pitch limits of CI electric hearing. This paper examines the TFS information encoded by TLE and evaluates the salience and usefulness of this information in CI users. Two experiments were conducted to compare pitch perception performance of TLE versus the widely-used Advanced Combinational Encoder (ACE) strategy. Experiment 1 investigated whether TLE processing improved pitch discrimination compared to ACE. Experiment 2 parametrically examined the effect of changing the lower frequency limit of the TLE modulator on pitch ranking. In both experiments, F0 difference limens were measured with synthetic harmonic complex tones using an adaptive procedure. Signal analysis of the outputs of TLE and ACE strategies showed that TLE introduces important temporal pitch cues that are not available with ACE. Results showed an improvement in pitch discrimination with TLE when the acoustic input had a lower F0 frequency. No significant effect of lower frequency limit was observed for pitch ranking, though a lower limit did tend to provide better outcomes. These results suggest that the envelope modulation introduced by TLE can improve pitch perception for CI listeners.

F0 and duration changes in unstressed vs. stressed syllables connected to postlexical stress and sentence type in Standard Lithuanian

This paper presents an analysis of F0 and duration changes in unstressed vs. stressed syllables con­nected to the postlexical stress and sentence type in Lithuanian. The aim of this analysis is to provide a systematic investigation on Lithuanian lexical stress by examining the F0 and duration differences between stressed and unstressed syllables in different sentence types and postlexical stress positions. The material consists of 540 audio-recorded phrases read by two Standard Lithuanian speakers – a male and a female. The results show that F0 does not consistently mark lexical stress in these two speakers’ data and it rather serves postlexical purposes. Significant differences between lexically stressed and unstressed syllables were found only in exclamations and questions when the target word was post­lexically stressed. Duration was found to be the marker of both lexical and postlexical stress. However, with regard to syllable duration, exclamations behave differently from both questions and statements.

Comparison of temporal fine structure sensitivity and concurrent vowel perception between children with and without reading disability

Background: Children with reading disabilities (RD) exhibit difficulty in perceiving speech in background noise due to poor auditory stream segregation. There is a dearth of literature on measures of temporal fine structure sensitivity (TFS) and concurrent vowel perception abilities to assess auditory stream segregation in children with reading disabilities. Hence the present study compared temporal fine structure sensitivity (TFS) and concurrent vowel perception abilities between children with and without reading deficits. Method: The present research consisted of a total number of 30 participants, 15 children with reading disabilities (RD) and fifteen typically developing (TD) children within the age range of 7-14 years and were designated as Group 1 and Group 2 respectively. Both groups were matched for age, grade, and classroom curricular instructions. The groups were evaluated for TFS and concurrent vowel perception abilities and the performance was compared using independent ‘t’ test and repeated measure ANOVA respectively. Results: Results revealed that the children with RD performed significantly (p < 0.001) poorer than TD children on both TFS and concurrent vowel identification task. On concurrent vowel identification tasks, there was no significant interaction found between reading ability and F0 difference suggesting that the trend was similar in both the groups. Conclusion: The study concludes that the children with RD show poor temporal fine structure sensitivity and concurrent vowel identification scores compared to age and grade matched TD children owing to poor auditory stream segregation in children with RD.

Comparison of temporal fine structure sensitivity and concurrent vowel perception between children with and without reading disability

Background: Children with reading disabilities (RD) exhibit difficulty in perceiving speech in background noise due to poor auditory stream segregation. There is a dearth of literature on measures of temporal fine structure sensitivity (TFS) and concurrent vowel perception abilities to assess auditory stream segregation in children with reading disabilities. Hence the present study compared temporal fine structure sensitivity (TFS) and concurrent vowel perception abilities between children with and without reading deficits. Method: The present research consisted of a total number of 30 participants, 15 children with reading disabilities (RD) and fifteen typically developing (TD) children within the age range of 7-14 years and were designated as Group 1 and Group 2 respectively. Both groups were matched for age, grade, and classroom curricular instructions. The groups were evaluated for TFS and concurrent vowel perception abilities and the performance was compared using independent ‘t’ test and repeated measure ANOVA respectively. Results: Results revealed that the children with RD performed significantly (p < 0.001) poorer than TD children on both TFS and concurrent vowel identification task. On concurrent vowel identification tasks, there was no significant interaction found between reading ability and F0 difference suggesting that the trend was similar in both the groups. Conclusion: The study concludes that the children with RD show poor temporal fine structure sensitivity and concurrent vowel identification scores compared to age and grade matched TD children owing to poor auditory stream segregation in children with RD.

Modeling the effects of age and hearing loss on concurrent vowel scores.

A difference in fundamental frequency (F0) between two vowels is an important segregation cue prior to identifying concurrent vowels. To understand the effects of this cue on identification due to age and hearing loss, Chintanpalli, Ahlstrom, and Dubno [(2016). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 140, 4142-4153] collected concurrent vowel scores across F0 differences for younger adults with normal hearing (YNH), older adults with normal hearing (ONH), and older adults with hearing loss (OHI). The current modeling study predicts these concurrent vowel scores to understand age and hearing loss effects. The YNH model cascaded the temporal responses of an auditory-nerve model from Bruce, Efrani, and Zilany [(2018). Hear. Res. 360, 40-45] with a modified F0-guided segregation algorithm from Meddis and Hewitt [(1992). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 91, 233-245] to predict concurrent vowel scores. The ONH model included endocochlear-potential loss, while the OHI model also included hair cell damage; however, both models incorporated cochlear synaptopathy, with a larger effect for OHI. Compared with the YNH model, concurrent vowel scores were reduced across F0 differences for ONH and OHI models, with the lowest scores for OHI. These patterns successfully captured the age and hearing loss effects in the concurrent-vowel data. The predictions suggest that the inability to utilize an F0-guided segregation cue, resulting from peripheral changes, may reduce scores for ONH and OHI listeners.

Effect of relative timing of target and background words on speech understanding using the coordinate response measure paradigm

Recognition of target keywords in CRM sentences in the presence of competing CRM sentences has been shown to depend upon both the rhythmic context of target and background speech and F0 differences between target and background speakers. The present study investigated the role of the relative timing of target and background keywords for background keywords that were presented either in isolation (Experiment 1) or embedded within their associated background context (Experiment 2) for target and background material that was spoken by the same male talker. In Experiment 1, onset asynchrony of target and background keywords varied between –200 ms and 200 ms. Results showed an asymmetric U-shaped performance curve where (1) target recognition improved with increasing deviation of background keywords from the expected onset timing of target keywords and (2) target words were better recognized when they began before background keywords compared to when they began after. In Experiment 2, where background keywords were embedded within their original CRM context, performance was reduced to chance for both an intact background rhythm condition and a range of altered background rhythm conditions. Results will be discussed in terms of a selective entrainment hypothesis and the role of F0 differences in speech segregation.

어휘 피치 궤적의 세대별 차이: 대구방언 화자를 중심으로

This study examined the differences in lexical pitch trajectories between speakers in their 20s and 50s from Daegue speakers, using two-syllable and one-syllable minimal pairs. For two-syllable minimal pairs, speakers in their 20s showed similar pitch trajectories, but speakers in their 50s represented different pitch trajectories depending on tones. Speakers in their 20s did not show the significant F0 difference between the two syllables in [HL] and [LH] as much as speakers in their 50s. For one-syllable minimal pairs, speakers in their 50s showed partially different pitch trajectories, but speakers in their 20s did not. These results indicate that speakers in their 50s use pitch trajectory differences better than speakers in their 20s in order to distinguish lexical meaning. However, for speakers in their 50s, a gentle slope in rising-high and rising-falling pitch trajectory shows that a change in tones has been undergone.

모어청자에 의한 일본어 어두 폐쇄음의 지각*

It is known that the voicing contrast for Japanese word-initial stops is primarily realized as differences in the voice onset time (VOT). However, recent studies have reported that voiced stops are more often produced with a positive VOT than with a negative VOT among the younger generation nationwide. It is also known that post-stop F0 is associated with the stop contrast, but the degree of F0 use differs from region to region. This study explores whether the difference in post-stop F0 functions as a perceptual cue to the stop contrast along with VOT. Fifty-five college students who are native listeners from four different regions participated in two or three perception tests. The results show that VOT is a primary cue to the voiced-voiceless distinction of word-initial stops, but that the effect of post-stop F0 on the stop contrast is marginal. The post-stop F0 is involved in perception only when VOT is ambiguous, such that a sound with high F0 is more often perceived as a voiceless stop, but not vice versa. The results of this study indicate that the acoustic parameters associated with the stop contrast are not the same in production and perception, and suggest that other factors such as context, which is not an acoustic characteristic, may also be involved in the stop contrast.

The effects of lexical content, acoustic and linguistic variability, and vocoding on voice cue perception

Perceptual differences in voice cues, such as fundamental frequency (F0) and vocal tract length (VTL), can facilitate speech understanding in challenging conditions. Yet, we hypothesized that in the presence of spectrotemporal signal degradations, as imposed by cochlear implants (CIs) and vocoders, acoustic cues that overlap for voice perception and phonemic categorization could be mistaken for one another, leading to a strong interaction between linguistic and indexical (talker-specific) content. Fifteen normal-hearing participants performed an odd-one-out adaptive task measuring just-noticeable differences (JNDs) in F0 and VTL. Items used were words (lexical content) or time-reversed words (no lexical content). The use of lexical content was either promoted (by using variable items across comparison intervals) or not (fixed item). Finally, stimuli were presented without or with vocoding. Results showed that JNDs for both F0 and VTL were significantly smaller (better) for non-vocoded compared with vocoded speech and for fixed compared with variable items. Lexical content (forward vs reversed) affected VTL JNDs in the variable item condition, but F0 JNDs only in the non-vocoded, fixed condition. In conclusion, lexical content had a positive top-down effect on VTL perception when acoustic and linguistic variability was present but not on F0 perception. Lexical advantage persisted in the most degraded conditions and vocoding even enhanced the effect of item variability, suggesting that linguistic content could support compensation for poor voice perception in CI users.

Is it all about the pitch? Acoustic determinants of dog-directed speech preference in domestic dogs, Canis familiaris

Dogs, similarly to infants, have been shown to be sensitive to human speech especially when it is directed to them. However, what essential acoustic, paralinguistic and lexical features of dog-directed speech are responsible for this preference in dogs is largely unknown. In the present study, generalized dog (DDS)-, infant (IDS)- and adult (ADS)-directed speech stimuli were created by using prerecorded sentences of multiple female speakers and these composite (averaged) stimuli were then manipulated to control for linguistic content as well as to equalize their mean fundamental frequency (F0) value. All three possible pairwise combinations of these acoustic stimuli were then presented to adult dogs in a two-way choice task where two identical target objects were used to indicate the sound sources. We found a significant preference towards the target object associated with DDS in the DDS versus ADS condition and suggest that, for dogs, mean F0 difference is not essential for DDS–ADS discrimination. However, we did not find evidence of selection bias when IDS was simultaneously presented either with DDS or ADS. Interestingly, our results also showed that dogs were more willing to approach the ‘more prosodic’ location (i.e. DDS or IDS versus ADS) when the prosodically more prominent sound stimulus was presented on their left side which suggests right-hemispheric specialization for neural processing of prosodic sounds in this domestic species. We also found that dogs made their choice faster when the ‘more prosodic’ stimulus was given first which suggests that they can perceive the difference not only between DDS and ADS, but also between IDS and ADS and between IDS and DDS. In conclusion, the composite DDS, IDS and ADS stimuli in the present study proved to be an effective technique in exploring the acoustic determinants of dog-directed speech preference in dogs.