Abstract
In three experiments a series of nonsense syllables ending in consonants was presented to adult subjects who had to discover or learn a rule classifying the syllables into two groups. The rule was based either on the voicing of the final consonants or on an arbitrary division of them. Subjects performed better with the voicing than with the arbitrary rule only when there was a straightforward relationship between the voicing rule and the plural formation rule in English or, more generally, when voicing assimilation with an added consonant was involved and attention was focused on the sound and articulation of the syllables. We conclude that the voicing distinction is not ordinarily accessible and that individuals easily learn and use phonological rules involving voicing assimilation because of articulatory constraints on the production of consonant clusters.
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Reference Notes
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This research was supported in part by NICHD Grant HD01994 and BRS Grant RR05596 to Haskins Laboratories and NSF Grant BNS77-00077 to Yale University.
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Healy, A.F., Levitt, A.G. Accessibility of the voicing distinction for learning phonological rules. Mem Cogn 8, 107–114 (1980). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03213413
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03213413