Auditory memory and vowel anchoring in CVC contexts

Auditory memory and vowel anchoring in CVC contexts J R Sawusch, H C Nusbaum, and E C Schwab Citation: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 65, S113 (1979); doi: 10.1121/1.2016954 View online: https://doi.org/10.1121/1.2016954 View Table of Contents: https://asa.scitation.org/toc/jas/65/S1 Published by the Acoustical Society of America collected from three male and three female English speakers Three groupsof 12 subjectsdistinguishedthe smiled token from its straightfaced counterpart in forced-choice identification tasks: Group was instructed to choose the smiled sound, Group the happier, and Group the sadder Groups and selected the smiled utterance significantlymore often than chance for all six speakers Group chose the straight-facedutterance as consistently, for four speakers, but for one speaker reliably picked the smiled one The results suggestedthat particular cue combinations may be identified as smiling specifically,whereas others may contribute to perceptionof emotionally in general Acoustic analysesshowedthat smilingraised the second and third formant frequencies for all speakers, and fundamental frequency, amplitude, and/or duration for some Duration and frequency both increased substantially during smiling only for the speakerwhose smiledutteranceswere alsojudged as sad SS10 Auditory memory and vowel anchoring in CVC contexts J R Sawusch, H C Nusbaum, and E C Schwab (Department of Psychology,SUNY/Buffalo, 4230 Ridge Lea Rd., Buffalo, NY 14226) Previous vowel anchoringexperimentshave shown someevidence of multiple processesin the contrast effects found for vowels In the present experiments vowels were embedded in CVC context ([CiC] to [CIC]) and presented to subjects in ABX format as well as standard identification in both equiprobable control and anchoring conditions For the [CIC] end of our continua, the degree of change in category boundariesdue to anchoring was found to vary with the degree to which the stimuli were perceived categories (from the ABX data) However, for the [CiC] end of our continua, the degree of anchoring was nearly constant and independent of the consonantal context and the degree of categoricalnessin the ABX data These data offer further supportfor our interpretation of vowel anchoring and adaptation results in terms of two distinct perceptual processeswith one of these tied changes in auditory memory [Work supported by NSF and NIMH.] SSll Identification and discrimination of a new linguistic contrast R N Aslin, D B Pisoni, B L Hennessy, and A J Perey (PsychologyDepartment, Indiana University, Bloomington,IN 47405) For many years there has been a consensusamong investigators that the linguistic experience of an individual exerts a profound and quite often permanent effect on the perceptual abilities required to identify and discriminate speech sounds Based on the results of SS13 Influence of task demands on the categorical versus continuous perception of vowels N Cowan and P A Morse (Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706) Various task constraints were imposed on subjects making same/ different, AX discriminations within and between phonetic categories The experiments employed four 50-ms, synthetic vowels from an/i/-/I/continuum and five interstimulus delays (0-2000 ms) In the first experiment, stimuli were presented with all trial types randomized together or with between- and within-category shifts in separate trialblocks Between-category performance was superior with separate blocks, whereas within-category performance did not differ in the two procedures A second experiment involved AX presentations to subjects who were or were not initially informed of the intended category labels Surprisingly, category knowledge improved within-category discriminations In a third experiment, subjects were required to identify both vowels in an AX pair Between-category discrimination was higher, and within-category discrimination lower, with AX identification as compared to a same/different response The results of these experiments suggest that a stable phonetic and an unstable auditory short-term memory both contribute to within-and between-category discrimination, with some labeling occurring on a comparative basis Furthermore, task demands alter the relative contributions of auditory and phonetic memory a small number of studies, it has been further assumed that selective modification of phonetic perception cannot be accomplished easily and quickly in the laboratory with simple discrimination training techniques involving only a few hours of practice These findings have been interpreted as support for the notion that the underlying neural mechanisms become so finely aligned by the linguistic environment that they can no longer be modified or "returned" in adults In the present paper we report the results of three experiments that systematically examined the acquisition of a new linguistic contrast in voicing Laboratory training procedures were implemented with a small computer in a real-time environment to establisha three-way contrast among voiced, voicelessunaspirated, and voiceless aspirated stops New perceptual categories emerged quite rapidly for most monolingualEnglish subjectsafter only a few minutes and subsequent perceptual tests revealed reliable and consistent labeling and discrimination functions for all three categories These new results differ quite substantially from all previous studiesin demonstratingthat the adult perceptual system is, in fact, quite plasticand can be modifiedselectivelyby environmental input [Supported by NIMH and NINCDS.] SS12 Abstract withdrawn SS14 Identification of temporal order in vowel sequences.J E Kerivan (NSMRL, Auditory Department, Submarine Base, Groton, CT 06340) P J Alfonso and S P Bornstein (Department of Speech, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06268) The effects of element speed and element pitch contour were studied for synthetic vowels /i, a•, a, u/ in various permuted sequences.Four trained subjects were asked to identify temporal order in this closed response vowel set A high-level stimulus uncertainty procedure was used Subjects were near perfect performance at element durations ranging from 90-150 ms They were above d' = 1.0 level at 30 ms per element and d' = 2.0 at 60 ms per element Performance on individual sequence permutations varied little at 90-150 ms per element but varied between chance and slightly above d' = 2.0 at both 30 and 60 ms per element The effect of normalizing element pitch contours was negligible for individual sequence permutations at all element speeds The duration threshold of vowel sequenceidentifiability (125- 200 ms per element) reported by other investigators using a recycling presentation format is considerably longer than these 30-60 ms per element thresholds A more sensitive approach to determine absolute duration thresholds for vowel sequencesappears to be with trained subjectsusing a single sequenceversus a recycling sequence method Sl13 J Acoust Soc Am., Vol 65, Suppl No 1, Spring 1979 50th Anniversary Meeting Sl13 ... SS10 Auditory memory and vowel anchoring in CVC contexts J R Sawusch, H C Nusbaum, and E C Schwab (Department of Psychology,SUNY/Buffalo, 4230 Ridge Lea Rd., Buffalo, NY 14226) Previous vowel anchoringexperimentshave... constant and independent of the consonantal context and the degree of categoricalnessin the ABX data These data offer further supportfor our interpretation of vowel anchoring and adaptation results in. .. discrimination training techniques involving only a few hours of practice These findings have been interpreted as support for the notion that the underlying neural mechanisms become so finely