Abstract
A contingent adaptation effect is reported for speech perception. Experiments were conducted to test the effects of an alternating sequence of two adapting syllables, [da] and [thi], on the perception of two series of synthetic speech syllables, [ba]-[pha] and [bi]-[phi]. Each of the test series consisted of 11 stimuli varying in voice onset time, a cue which distinguishes voiced from voiceless stop consonants in word-initial position. The [da]-[thi] adapting sequence produced opposite shifts in the loci of the phonetic boundaries for the two test series. For the [ba]-[pha] series, listeners made fewer identification responses to the [b] category after adaptation, while for the [bi]-[phi] series, listeners made more responses to the [b] category. The opposing shifts indicate that the perceptual analysis of voicing in stop consonants is carried out with respect to vowel environment.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Cooper, W. E. Adaptation of phonetic feature analyzers for place of articulation. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, in press.
Cooper, W. E., & Blumstein, S. E. A ‘labial’ feature analyzer in speech perception. Perception & Psychophysics, 1974, 15, 591–600.
Eimas, P. D., Cooper, W. E., & Corbit, J. D. Some properties of linguistic feature detectors. Perception & Psychophysics, 1973, 13, 247–252.
Eimas, P. D., & Corbit, J. D. Selective adaptation of linguistic feature detectors. Cognitive Psychology, 1973, 4, 99–109.
Fant, C. G. M. On the predictability of formant levels and spectrum envelopes from formant frequencies. InFor Roman Jakobson. The Hague: Mouton, 1956. Pp. 109–120.
Fidell, L. S. Orientation specificity in chromatic adaptation of human “edge-detectors”. Perception & Psychophysics, 1970, 8, 235–236.
Haggard, M., Ambler, S., & Callow, M. Pitch as a voicing cue. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1970, 47, 613–617.
Harris, C. S., & Gibson, A. R. Is orientation-specific color adaptation in human vision due to edge-detectors, after-images, or “dipoles”? Science, 1968, 162, 1506–1507.
Held, R., & Shattuck, S. R. Color- and edge-sensitive channels in the human visual system: Tuning for orientation. Science, 1971, 174, 314–316.
Klatt, D. H. Voice-onset time, frication and aspiration in word-initial consonant clusters. Quarterly Progress Report of the M.I.T. Research Laboratory of Electronics, 1973, 109, 124–136.
Lisker, L., & Abramson, A. S. A cross-language study of voicing in initial stops: Acoustic measurements. Word, 1964, 20, 384–422.
Lisker, L., & Abramson, A. S. Some effecs of context on voice onset time in English stops. Language & Speech, 1967, 10, 1–28.
Lisker, L., & Abramson, A. S. The voicing dimension: Some experiments in comparative phonetics. InProceedings of the Sixth International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Prague. 1967. Prague: Academia, 1970. Pp. 563–567.
Mayhew, J. E. W., & Anstis, S. M. Movement aftereffects contingent on color, intensity, and pattern. Perception & Psychophysics, 1972, 12, 77–85.
McCollough, C. Color adaptation of edge-detectors in the human visual system. Science, 1965, 149, 1115–1116.
Stevens, K. N., & Klatt, D. H. The role of formant transitions in the voiced-voiceless distinction for stops. M.I.T. Research Laboratory of Electronics Quarterly Progress Report, 1971, 101, 188–196.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This research was supported by NIH Training Grant NIH-5-T01-GM01064-12 to the Department of Psychology, M.I.T., and by the Research Laboratory of Electronics, M.I.T. I am grateful to Dennis H. Klatt for his instructions on speech synthesis procedures and for criticisms of the manuscript. Kenneth N. Stevens and Merrill F. Garrett also provided helpful comments.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cooper, W.E. Contingent feature analysis in speech perception. Perception & Psychophysics 16, 201–204 (1974). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03203928
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03203928