Abstract
To examine the importance of distinctive features that are used to encode consonants (following Wickelgren’s analysis) in an immediate recall task, sequences of 5 consonants, all paired with the vowel /a/ were constructed and presented aurally for recall. The middle three items in each sequence all had either the same place of articulation (front, middle, or back of the vocal apparatus), orthe same manner of articulation (voiced, unvoiced, or nasal), or were unrelated in either place or manner (control). It was shown that, in comparison with the control sequences, consonants imbedded among others articulated similarly were recalled less accurately, suggesting that these distinctive features are important in encoding and memory maintenance. A comparison of the 3 manner and 3 place features showed that the greatest difficulty in recall occurred for the similar manner sequences (especially voiced and unvoiced, implicating manner of articulation as the critical distinctive feature in aural encoding. Some discussion is also presented of a distinction between articulation and acoustic factors in encoding processes.
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Cole, R.A., Haber, R.N. & Sales, B.D. Mechanisms of aural encoding: I. Distinctive features for consonants. Perception & Psychophysics 3, 281–284 (1968). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03212744
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03212744