10.1184/R1/6617243.v1
Lori Holt
Lori
Holt
Andrew J Lotto
Andrew J
Lotto
Keith R Kluender
Keith R
Kluender
Neighboring Spectral Content Influences Vowel Identification
Carnegie Mellon University
2000
speech intelligibility
hearing
psychology
2000-08-01 00:00:00
Journal contribution
https://kilthub.cmu.edu/articles/journal_contribution/Neighboring_Spectral_Content_Influences_Vowel_Identification/6617243
Four experiments explored the relative contributions of spectral content and phonetic labeling in
effects of context on vowel perception. Two 10-step series of CVC syllables ([bVb] and [dVd])
varying acoustically in F2 midpoint frequency and varying perceptually in vowel height from [^] to
[ε] were synthesized. In a forced-choice identification task, listeners more often labeled vowels as
[^] in [dVd] context than in [bVb] context. To examine whether spectral content predicts this effect,
nonspeech–speech hybrid series were created by appending 70-ms sine-wave glides following the
trajectory of CVC F2’s to 60-ms members of a steady-state vowel series varying in F2 frequency.
In addition, a second hybrid series was created by appending constant-frequency sine-wave tones
equivalent in frequency to CVC F2 onset/offset frequencies. Vowels flanked by frequencymodulated
glides or steady-state tones modeling [dVd] were more often labeled as [^] than were the
same vowels surrounded by nonspeech modeling [bVb]. These results suggest that spectral content
is important in understanding vowel context effects. A final experiment tested whether spectral
content can modulate vowel perception when phonetic labeling remains intact. Voiceless
consonants, with lower-amplitude more-diffuse spectra, were found to exert less of an influence on
vowel perception than do their voiced counterparts. The data are discussed in terms of a general
perceptual account of context effects in speech perception.