Cross-series adaptation using song and string

Abstract

The acousticrauditory feature "risetime" has been claimed to underlie both the phonetic affricate-fricative distinction and the nonphonetic plucked-string/bowed-string distinction. We used the perceptual adaptation technique to determine whether the risetime differences of the [d$a]-[ba ] distinction would therefore be registered by the same mechanism that mediates risetime differences for the plucked-bowed distinction. Two continua were used, one of digitally modified natural speech and one of synthetic violin sounds, in which the risetime was varied across each set of tokens from 0 msec to 80 msec in steps of 10 msec. The speech was sung and the violin notes were synthesized with the same fundamental frequency, 294 Hz. Adaptation of the category boundaries was observed only when speech adaptors were tested with the speech continuum and when violin adaptors were tested with the violin continuum. When crossseries tests were performed (violin adaptors tested with the speech series, and speech adaptors tested with the violin series), no effect of adaptation was observed. This finding indicates that these speech and violin sounds, despite obvious acoustic similarities, do not share the same feature detectors.

Evaluation and integration of visual and auditory information in speech perception.

“…Categorical perception means that the listener's experience is limited to a discrete phonetic percept even though the speech stimulus might be varied along a continuous auditory dimension. Although it is now well acknowledged that the perception of speech only approximates the predictions of categorical perception, the concept continues to function as an important empirical and theoretical phenomenon in speech research (Aslin & Pisoni, 1980;Kuhl & Miller, 1978;Remez, Cutting, & Studdert-Kennedy, 1980). In contrast to categorical perception, the FLMP assumes that the listener has continuous information representing the degree to which the speech signal represents one speech sound or another.…”

Identification and discrimination of rise time: Is it categorical or noncategorical?

“…The discrimination functions were nonmonotonic and showed a typical categorical peak in the middle of the rise time continuum. The generality of the perception results they obtained was extended to infants (Jusczyk et al, 1977) and adults in cross-continua adaptation studies (Remez et al, 1980). Recently, however, Rosen and Howell (1981) have failed to replicate Cutting and Rosner's results using digitally generated stimuli.…”

Evidence for a central representation of instrument timbre

“…Remez et al (1980) did just this and the reverse, using pluck-bow and l'1a/-/jal continua and adaptors, but found no reliable cross-series adaptation. Kat and Samuel (1984;Samuel, 1988) followed up this work and showed that plucks and bows can adapt phonetic continua (/ba/-/wal and ICa/-/Sa/) when the adaptor and test items match in periodicity (i.e., spectral quality).…”

“…The one manipulation that has been used to explore this issue has been to adapt speech with non speech adaptors. Studies have generally found adaptation (Diehl, 1976;Kat & Samuel, 1984;Samuel, 1988;Samuel & Newport, 1979; however, see Remez, Cutting, & Studdert-Kennedy, 1980). In a particularly elegant demonstration of the central locus of this effect, Samuel (1988) showed that an adaptor that resembled the sound of a plucked violin string produced reliable /ba/-like contralateral adaptation on a voiced and a whispered /ba/-/wa/ continuum.…”

“…Cutting, Rosner, and Foard (1976) and Remez et al (1980) found reliable adaptation by using endpoint adaptors on a pluck-bow continuum. Similarly, Remez (1979;see also Remez, 1980) found adaptation with an /ae/-buzz continuum with endpoint adaptors.…”