Processing two dimensions of nonspeech stimuli: The auditory-phonetic distinction reconsidered.

A series of four experiments investigated the nature of the dependency relation that exists during the processing of the phonetic features of place and manner of articulation. A speeded classification paradigm was used in which listeners' classification times along these two dimensions were measured under three conditions of variation along the nontarget dimension: (1) no variation, (2) correlated variation, and (3) orthogonal variation. In all four studies, a mutual but asymmetric pattern of interference was found in the orthogonal conditions, in which the magnitude of the interference effect was greater when place of articulation was the target dimension than when manner was the target dimension. In addition, the discriminability of the manner values did not affect the pattern of interference effects. The results were discussed in terms of a concurrent-contingent model of parallel processing wherein it was assumed that feature decisions along either dimension are affected by feature value along the other dimension, but that decisions about place of articulation are more dependent on manner information than manner decisions are on place information.Contemporary theoretical approaches to the perception of speech at the phonetic (segmental) level have been concerned with a description of the processes or stages of analysis that intervene between the acoustic event and the final perception of phonetic segments, for example, the segmental unit [b] in the syllable [bal. At the very least, the assumption has been made (cf. Pisoni, 1975) that the acoustic signal undergoes a number of transformations (i.e., stages of analysis) which in effect reduce the amount of information in the signal and ultimately yield a set or matrix of distinctive phonetic feature values. These matrices of feature values define the individual segmental units and serve as the basis for perception at this level of linguistic analysis.There is considerable evidence available from a wide variety of experimental situations in support of the contention that the acoustic signal undergoes some form of distinctive feature analysis. For ex-

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Asymmetric dependencies in processing phonetic features

Eimas

Tartter

Miller

et al. 1978

“…Unfortunately, a fair number of other studies have as their sole raison d'etre the supposed categorical nature of the perception of rise time. This applies to Cutting, Rosner, and Foard's (1976) studies on selective adaptation and varying interstimulus interval, the reaction time work of Blechner, Day, and Cutting (1976), the study with infants of Jusczyk, Rosner, Cutting, Foard, and Smith (1977), and the cross-continuum selective adaptation experiment by Remez, Cutting, and Studdert-Kennedy (1980). Especially unfounded are the speculations in the latter paper about the categorical nature of the perception of rise time being related to the categorical nature of sound production mechanisms in the violin, a fanciful extension of motor theory which is having enough troubles of its own (see Howell & Harvey, in press, for a recent review).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plucks and bows are not categorically perceived

Rosen

Howell

1981

Cutting and Rosner (Perception & Psychophysics, 1974, 16, 564-570) reported that nonspeech stimuli differing in rise time were categorically perceived in the same way as speech sounds. With two independently generated sets of stimuli essentially the same as those described by Cutting and Rosner, we were unable to replicate their finding that discrimination measured in an ABX task was best around 40 msec, the category boundary. We found discrimination always best at the shortest rise times, decreasing monotonically with increasing rise time. Oscillographic traces of Cutting and Rosner's original stimuli showed them not to have the intended rise times. Instead of starting with a rise of 0 msec and increasing linearly in 10-msec steps to 80 msec, the measured rise times were approximately 4, 6, 15, 19, 37, 43, 57, 66, and 76 msec, respectively. A set of stimuli having these rise times was generated. Two distinct patterns of response emerged from the discrimination task. Most subjects now showed best discrimination around 40 msec, but a few still performed best at the shortest rise times.

“…All of these had been found for speech sounds, had not yet been found for nonspeech sounds, and were thought to converge on the auditory-phonetic distinction. Plucked and bowed sounds were the first (and possibly the only) set of nonspeech sounds to yield all four effects: categorical perception in adults (Cutting & Rosner, 1974, 1976Cutting, Rosner, & Foard, 1976) and infants (Jusczyk, Rosner, Cutting, Foard, & Smith, 1977), right-ear/left-hemisphere advantages (Blechner,Note 3), asymmetric integrality with redundancy gain (Blechner, Day, & Cutting, 1976), and selective adaptation (Cutting et aI., 1976;Remez, StuddertKennedy, & Cutting, 1980). It is important to point out that this list was, at best, a concatenative set.…”

Section: A Reassessment Of the Import Of Plucks And Bowsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plucks and bows are categorically perceived, sometimes

Cutting

1982

Self Cite

Cutting and Rosner (Perception & Psychophysics, 1974, 16, 564-570) reported that sawtooth wavetrains were perceived categorically when an array was varied in linear rise time increments. That is, rapid rise time stimuli were identified as plucked strings and slower rise time stimuli as bowed strings, and pluck-bow comparisons were relatively easy to discriminate but pluck-pluck and bow-bow comparisons were not. Such results indicate the general equivalence of identifica· tion and discrimination tasks. Rosen and Howell (Perception & Psychophysics, 1981, 30, 156-168), however, report that categorical perception does not occur for these sounds for two reasons. First, the original stimuli did not have the rise times reported by Cutting and Rosner. Second, the perception of these stimuli more closely follows a prediction from a Weber fraction. Acknowledging the first fact to be true, in part due to difficulties in digital·to-analog conver· sion, I set out to replicate and extend the results of Rosen and Howell. In Experiment I, I found that stimuli with equal linear increments of rise time are not perceived categorically; but they are not perceived to follow closely a logarithmic relation either. In Experiment 2, I found that stimuli with equal logarithmic increments of rise time were generally perceived categorically. Experiment 3 replicated the results of both experiments. Thus, plucked and bowed music-like sounds can sometimes be found to be perceived in a categorical manner. However, categorical perception is not found with stimuli generated in the manner of Cutting and Rosner (1974) or Rosen and Howell (1981), and the phenomenon generally seems subject to rather stringent, if not curious, stimulus conditions. Moreover, and more deeply, categorical perception seems hardly the bedrock phenomenon it once appeared to be, whether in speech or in any other domain.