Abstract
Subjects monitored for the syllable-initial phonemes /b/ and /s/, as well as for the syllables containing those phonemes, in lists of nonsense syllables. Time to detect /b/ was a function of the amount of uncertainty as to the identity of the vowel following the target consonant; when uncertainty was low, no difference existed between phoneme and syllable monitoring latencies, but when uncertainty was high, syllables were detected faster than phonemes. Time to detect /s/ was independent of uncertainty concerning the accompanying vowel and was always slower than syllable detection. The role of knowledge of contexts in a phoneme-monitoring task as well as the relative availability of phonemic information to the listener in this task are discussed.
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Reference Notes
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Swinney, D.A., Prather, P. Phonemic identification in a phoneme monitoring experiment: The variable role of uncertainty about vowel contexts. Perception & Psychophysics 27, 104–110 (1980). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03204296
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03204296