Spectral Integration of Dynamic Cues in the Perception of Syllable-Initial Stops

Abstract

The present experiments examine the potential role of auditory spectral integration and spectral center of gravity (COG) effects in the perception of initial formant transitions in the syllables [da]- [ga] andOf interest is whether the place distinction for stops in these syllables can be cued by a 'virtual F3 transition' in which the percept of a frequency transition is produced by a dynamically changing COG. Listeners perceived the virtual F3 transitions comparably with actual F3 transitions although the former were less salient a cue. However, in a separate experiment, static 'virtual F3 bursts' were not as effective as actual F3 bursts in cueing the alveolar-velar place distinction. These results indicate that virtual F3 transitions can provide phonetic information to the perceptual system and that auditory spectral integration (completed by the central auditory system) may play a significant role in speech perception.

Auditory spectral integration in the perception of diphthongal vowels

“…It may be argued that the nature of the task made it impossible to determine that perception of the unaltered and virtual stimuli is qualitatively similar, particularly for the small extent of frequency rise of 160 Hz. However, the present results confirmed an earlier finding in Fox et al ͑2008͒ where listeners' classification of virtual formant transition as "rising" dropped to about 30% for two smallest rises of 265 and 159 Hz. For these small rises, listeners were unable to assign even a non-linguistic label "rising sound," suggesting that a stationary sound was all they heard ͑and the responses to unaltered stimuli for these small rises were comparatively higher͒.…”

The intelligibility of noise-vocoded speech: spectral information available from across-channel comparison of amplitude envelopes

“…Recently, more direct evidence that the frequency contours of formants can be inferred from across-channel amplitude comparisons, at least for single formant transitions, has been provided by Fox et al [34]. Their study explored the role of F3 transitions in distinguishing the place of articulation of initial stops in the syllable pairs [da]-[ga] and [ta]- [ka].…”

“…Virtual F3 transitions were broadly comparable with actual F3 transitions in supporting the correct identification of initial stops; listeners could also distinguish the direction of the F3 transitions when heard in isolation as rising or falling, whether actual or virtual. Fox et al [34] concluded that amplitude and frequency information can be combined in the perception of formant transitions.…”

Auditory Spectral Integration in the Perception of Static Vowels

“…However, if the wideband spectral analysis is a real phenomenon which is used in vowel (and speech) processing in a variety of contexts, we should not expect it to cease in the processing of consonant-vowel transitions or diphthongal changes in vowels. Evidence exists that listeners use the amplitude cues (or moving COG cues) in the perception of /da/-/ga/ and /ta/-/ka/ transitions (Fox, Jacewicz & Feth, 2008). The dynamically changing COG cues were also shown to be utilized in the perception of diphthongal changes such as in the words we and you (Fox, Jacewicz & Chang, 2010).…”