Influence of vocalic context on perception of the [∫]-[s] distinction

When synthetic fricative noises from a [∫]-[s] continuum are followed by [a] or [u] (with appropriate formant transitions), listeners perceive more instances of [s] in the context of [u] than in the context of [a]. Presumably, this reflects a perceptual adjustment for the coarticulatory effect of rounded vowels on preceding fricatives. In Experiment 1, we found that varying the duration of the fricative noise leaves the perceptual context effect unchanged, whereas insertion of a silent interval following the noise reduces the effect substantially. Experiment 2 suggested that it is temporal separation rather than the perception of an intervening stop consonant that is responsible for this reduction, in agreement with recent, analogous observations on anticipatory coarticulation. In Experiment 3, we showed that the vowel context effect disappears when the periodic stimulus portion is synthesized so as to contain no formant transitions. To dissociate the contribution of formant transitions from contextual effects due to vowel quality per se, Experiment 4 employed synthetic fricative noises followed by periodic portions excerpted from naturally produced [∫a], [sa], [∫u], and [su]. The results showed strong and largely independent effects of formant transitions and vowel quality on fricative perception. In addition, we found a strong speaker (male vs. female) normalization effect. All three influences on fricative perception were reduced by temporal separation of noise and periodic stimulus portions. Although no single hypothesis can explain all of our results, they are generally supportive of the view that some knowledge of the dynamics of speech production has a role in speech perception.     

Typicality effects on memory for voice: Implications for earwitness testimony

The effects of voice typicality on voice recognition were examined. In an incidental task, participants were presented with consonant‐vowel‐consonant stimuli (with varying vowels) spoken by voices rated as high‐typical or low‐typical. One week later, they were brought back for a surprise voice recognition test where the target voice was presented along with low‐typical and high‐typical voice distracters. The results indicated that voice misidentifications occur, with many errors due to confusions of high‐typical voice targets with high‐typical target voices. The results show that voice typicality affects voice recognition accuracy and is an important factor to be considered in real‐life earwitness testimony situations. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Phoneme‐Order Encoding During Spoken Word Recognition: A Priming Investigation

In three experiments, we examined priming effects where primes were formed by transposing the first and last phoneme of tri‐phonemic target words (e.g., /byt/ as a prime for /tyb/). Auditory lexical decisions were found not to be sensitive to this transposed‐phoneme priming manipulation in long‐term priming (Experiment 1), with primes and targets presented in two separated blocks of stimuli and with unrelated primes used as control condition (/mul/‐/tyb/), while a long‐term repetition priming effect was observed (/tyb/‐/tyb/). However, a clear transposed‐phoneme priming effect was found in two short‐term priming experiments (Experiments 2 and 3), with primes and targets presented in close temporal succession. The transposed‐phoneme priming effect was found when unrelated prime‐target pairs (/mul/‐/tyb/) were used as control and more important when prime‐target pairs sharing the medial vowel (/pys/‐/tyb/) served as control condition, thus indicating that the effect is not due to vocalic overlap. Finally, in Experiment 3, a transposed‐phoneme priming effect was found when primes sharing the medial vowel plus one consonant in an incorrect position with the targets (/byl/‐/tyb/) served as control condition, and this condition did not differ significantly from the vowel‐only condition. Altogether, these results provide further evidence for a role for position‐independent phonemes in spoken word recognition, such that a phoneme at a given position in a word also provides evidence for the presence of words that contain that phoneme at a different position.     

The influence of phoneme position overlap on the phonemic similarity effect in nonword recall

The current research examined the predictions that short-term memory models generate for the phonological similarity effect, when similarity was defined in different ways. Three serial recall experiments with consonant–vowel–consonant (CVC) nonwords are reported, where the position of the phonemes that list items shared was manipulated (i.e., shared vowel and final consonant [_VC; Experiment 1], initial consonant and vowel [CV_; Experiment 2], or the two consonants [C_C; Experiment 3]. The results show that the position of common phonemes in nonwords has differential effects on order and item information. The findings are discussed in relation to previous research into the effect of phonemic similarity on nonword recall, and modifications to current short-term memory models are proposed.     

Onsets and rimes as units of spoken syllables: evidence from children

The effects of syllable structure on the development of phonemic analysis and reading skills were examined in four experiments. The experiments were motivated by theories that syllables consist of an onset (initial consonant or cluster) and a rime (vowel and any following consonants). Experiment 1 provided behavioral support for the syllable structure model by showing that 8-year-olds more easily learned word games that treated onsets and rimes as units than games that did not. Further support for the cohesiveness of the onset came from Experiments 2 and 3, which found that 4- and 5-year-olds less easily recognized a spoken or printed consonant target when it was the first phoneme of a cluster than when it was a singleton. Experiment 4 extended these results to printed words by showing that consonant-consonant-vowel nonsense syllables were more difficult for beginning readers to decode than consonant-vowel-consonant syllables.     

The influence of phoneme position overlap on the phonemic similarity effect in nonword recall

The current research examined the predictions that short-term memory models generate for the phonological similarity effect, when similarity was defined in different ways. Three serial recall experiments with consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) nonwords are reported, where the position of the phonemes that list items shared was manipulated (i.e., shared vowel and final consonant [_VC; Experiment 1], initial consonant and vowel [CV_; Experiment 2], or the two consonants [C_C; Experiment 3]. The results show that the position of common phonemes in nonwords has differential effects on order and item information. The findings are discussed in relation to previous research into the effect of phonemic similarity on nonword recall, and modifications to current short-term memory models are proposed.     

Mechanisms of aural encoding: VI. Consonants and vowels are remembered as subsets of distinctive features

An attempt was made to examine the manner in which consonants and vowels are coded in short-term memory. under identical recall conditions. Ss were presented with sequences of consonant-vowel digrams for serial recall. Sequences were composed of randomly presented consonants paired with/a/ or randomly presented vowels paired with /d/. Halle’s distinctive feature system was used to generate predictions concerning the frequency of intrusion errors. among phonemes. These predictions were based on the assumption that phonemes are discriminated in memory in terms of their component distinctive features, so that intrusions should most frequently occur between phonemes sharing similar distinctive features. The analysis of intrusion errors revealed that each consonant and vowel phoneme was coded m short-term memory by a particular combination of distinctive features which differed from one phoneme to another. A given phoneme was coded by the same set of distinctive features regardless of the number of syllables in the sequence. However, distinctive feature theories were not able to predict the frequency of intrusion errors for phonemes presented in the middle serial positions of a sequence with 100% accuracy. The results of the experiment support the notion that consonant and vowel phonemes are coded in a similar manner in STM and that this coding involves the retention of a specific set of distinctive features for each phoneme.     

聋人双字词音位识别的实验研究

聋人能利用视觉音素意识解码词汇语音。与健听人音位位置效应一致,聋人对汉字声母更敏感,但双字词中是否也有类似的声母优势还不清楚。采用音位识别任务探讨聋人双字词识别的声母优势及其原因,研究一利用编码方式考察指拼的作用,发现了声母识别优势,表明聋人能利用字母和指拼两种方式解码双字词语音且编码方式不影响声母优势;研究二进一步利用汉字位置探讨音位序列加工对声母识别优势的作用,结果发现了声母优势、首字优势及首字声母优势,表明聋人识别双字词音位在汉字水平、汉字音节内水平都遵循从左至右的序列加工,与健听人一致,同时还受指拼声母的特殊影响。整个研究表明,聋人识别汉字语音建立在视觉音素意识基础上,双字词的声母识别优势受指拼声母强化、双字词汉字位置效应、音节内音位位置效应的共同作用。     

Some effects of later-occurring information on the perception of stop consonant and semivowel

In three experiments, we determined how perception of the syllable-initial distinction between the stop consonant [b] and the semivowel [w], when cued by duration of formant transitions, is affected by parts of the sound pattern that occur later in time. For the first experiment, we constructed four series of syllables, similar in that each had initial formant transitions ranging from one short enough for [ba] to one long enough for [wa], hut different in overall syllable duration. The consequence in perception was that, as syllable duration increased, the [b-w] boundary moved toward transitions of longer duration. Then, in the second experiment, we increased the duration of the sound by adding a second syllable, [da], (thus creating [bada-wada]), and observed that lengthening the second syllable also shifted the perceived [b-w] boundary in the first syllable toward transitions of longer duration; however, this effect was small by comparison with that produced when the first syllable was lengthened equivalently. In the third experiment, we found that altering the structure of the syllable had an effect that is not to be accounted for by the concomitant change in syllable duration: lengthening the syllable by adding syllable-final transitions appropriate for the stop consonant [d] (thus creating [bad-wad]) caused the perceived [b-w] boundary to shift toward transitions of shorter duration, an effect precisely opposite to that produced when the syllable was lengthened to the same extent by adding steady-state vowel. We suggest that, in all these cases, the later-occurring information specifies rate of articulation and that the effect on the earlier-occurring cue reflects an appropriate perceptual normalization.     

Vowel processing during silent reading: evidence from eye movements

Two eye movement experiments examined whether skilled readers include vowels in the early phonological representations used in word recognition during silent reading. Target words were presented in sentences preceded by parafoveal previews in which the vowel phoneme was concordant or discordant with the vowel phoneme in the target word. In Experiment 1, the orthographic vowel differed from the target in both the concordant and discordant preview conditions. In Experiment 2, the vowel letters in the preview were identical to those in the target word. The phonological vowel was ambiguous, however, and the final consonants of the previews biased the vowel phoneme either toward or away from the target's vowel phoneme. In both experiments, shorter reading times were observed for targets preceded by concordant previews than by discordant previews. Implications for models of word recognition are discussed.     

Consonant/vowel ratio as a cue for voicing in English

Several experiments investigate voicing judgments in minimal pairs likerabid-rapid when the duration of the first vowel and the medial stop are varied factorially and other cues for voicing remain ambiguous. In Experiments 1 and 2, in which synthetic labial and velar-stop voicing pairs are investigated, the perceptual boundary along a continuum of silent consonant durations varies in constant proportion to increases in the duration of the preceding vocalic interval. In Experiment 3, it is shown that speaking tempo external to the test word has far smaller effects on a closure duration boundary for voicing than does the tempo within the test word. Experiment 4 shows that, even within the word, it is primarily the preceding vowel that accounts for changes in the consonant duration effects. Furthermore, in Experiments 3 and 4, the effects of timing outside the vowel-consonant interval are independent of the duration of that interval itself. These findings suggest that consonant/vowel ratio serves as a primary acoustic cue for English voicing in syllable-final position and imply that this ratio possibly is directly extracted from the speech signal.     

The phonological similarity effect in serial recognition

An experiment is reported examining the effect of consistent phonemic similarity among list items on memory retention in a task that is independent of overt speech production, the serial recognition task. Lists of consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words and nonwords were constructed such that although phoneme overlap was manipulated (i.e., shared vowel and final consonant [_VC], initial consonant and vowel [CV_], or the two consonants [C_C]), similarity remained constant. The results show that the influence of sub-syllabic mechanisms on STM performance is independent of speech production processes, and similarity in the pattern of results suggests that the same mechanisms subserve the recall of words and nonwords in STM. It is argued that the results are more consistent with psycholinguistic models than nonlinguistic models of STM, and implications for current STM models are discussed.     

Learning a novel grapheme: effects of positional and phonemic context on children's spelling

Two experiments explored how children who encounter a new spelling for a phoneme generalize it to novel items. Children ages 5 1/2 to 9 (N = 123) were taught a CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) nonword containing a new vowel spelling in the middle position (e.g., /gaik/ is spelled as giik). They were then asked to spell other nonwords containing the vowel or to judge spellings that had supposedly been produced by younger children. Children were sensitive to position in the spelling production task, being more likely to use the novel grapheme when the vowel appeared in the middle of a CVC target than when it appeared in word-initial or word-final position. Children were not significantly more likely to use the novel grapheme when the target shared the vowel and final consonant (rime) of the training stimulus than when it shared the initial consonant and vowel. Implications for views of spelling development are discussed.     

ORTHOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATION AND PHONEMIC SEGMENTATION IN SKILLED READERS:

Abstract— The long-lasting effect of reading experience in Hebrew and English on phonemic segmentation was examined in skilled readers Hebrew and English orthographies differ in the way they represent phonological information Whereas each phoneme in English is represented by a discrete letter, in un-pointed Hebrew most of the vowel information is not conveyed by the print, and, therefore, a letter often corresponds to a CV utterance (i. e., a consonant plus a vowel) Adult native speakers of Hebrew or English, presented with words consisting of a consonant, a vowel, and then another consonant, were require to delete the first "sound" of each word and to pronounce the remaining utterance as fast as possible Hebrew speakers deleted the initial CV segment instead of the initial consonant more often than English speakers, for both Hebrew and English words Moreover, Hebrew speakers were significantly slower than English speakers in correctly deleting the initial phoneme, and faster in deleting the whole syllable. These results suggest that the manner in which orthography represents phonology not only affects phonological awareness during reading acquisition, but also has a long-lasting effect on skilled readers' intuitions concerning the phonological structure of their spoken language.     

Explicit speech segmentation and syllabic onset structure: Developmental trends

Recent applications of the hierarchical theory of the syllable to the development of explicit speech segmentation are critically examined. One particular prediction, that an initial consonant is more easily isolated when it constitutes the complete onset of a syllable than when it is part of a cluster onset, was tested on children with grade levels ranging from kindergarten to second grade. At each level, two independent groups of children worked with either CVCC (first consonant complete onset) or CCVC (part of cluster onset) syllables. First- and second-graders performed better on the CVCC than on the CCVC material in an initial consonant deletion task, but not when the task was comparison on the basis of that consonant. With the same instructions as the older children, kindergarten children performed at floor level on both tasks with both materials. However, in a new experiment in which the deletion task was presented as a puppet game, and with pretraining and selection on vowel deletion, a significantly higher level of success was achieved by the children working with the CVCC material. These results are consistent with the notion of developmental precedence of onset segmentation on phoneme segmentation. On the other hand, the results of the first and second graders show that onset superiority is not specific for the pre-reading stage.     

The Sound of Grasp Affordances: Influence of Grasp‐Related Size of Categorized Objects on Vocalization

Previous research shows that simultaneously executed grasp and vocalization responses are faster when the precision grip is performed with the vowel [i] and the power grip is performed with the vowel [ɑ]. Research also shows that observing an object that is graspable with a precision or power grip can activate the grip congruent with the object. Given the connection between vowel articulation and grasping, this study explores whether grasp‐related size of observed objects can influence not only grasp responses but also vowel pronunciation. The participants had to categorize small and large objects into natural and manufactured categories by pronouncing the vowel [i] or [ɑ]. As predicted, [i] was produced faster when the object's grasp‐related size was congruent with the precision grip while [ɑ] was produced faster when the size was congruent with the power grip (Experiment 1). The effect was not, however, observed when the participants were presented with large objects that are not typically grasped by the power grip (Experiment 2). This study demonstrates that vowel production is systematically influenced by grasp‐related size of a viewed object, supporting the account that sensory‐motor processes related to grasp planning and representing grasp‐related properties of viewed objects interact with articulation processes. The paper discusses these findings in the context of size–sound symbolism, suggesting that mechanisms that transform size‐grasp affordances into corresponding grasp‐ and articulation‐related motor programs might provide a neural basis for size‐sound phenomena that links small objects with closed‐front vowels and large objects with open‐back vowels.     

Sensitivity to reinforcer duration in a self-control procedure

In a concurrent-chains procedure, pigeons' responses on left and right keys were followed by reinforcers of different durations at different delays following the choice responses. Three pairs of reinforcer delays were arranged in each session, and reinforcer durations were varied over conditions. In Experiment 1 reinforcer delays were unequal, and in Experiment 2 reinforcer delays were equal. In Experiment 1 preference reversal was demonstrated in that an immediate short reinforcer was chosen more frequently than a longer reinforcer delayed 6 s from the choice, whereas the longer reinforcer was chosen more frequently when delays to both reinforcers were lengthened. In both experiments, choice responding was more sensitive to variations in reinforcer duration at overall longer reinforcer delays than at overall shorter reinforcer delays, independently of whether fixed-interval or variable-interval schedules were arranged in the choice phase. We concluded that preference reversal results from a change in sensitivity of choice responding to ratios of reinforcer duration as the delays to both reinforcers are lengthened.     

The phonological similarity effect in serial recognition

An experiment is reported examining the effect of consistent phonemic similarity among list items on memory retention in a task that is independent of overt speech production, the serial recognition task. Lists of consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words and nonwords were constructed such that although phoneme overlap was manipulated (i.e., shared vowel and final consonant [_VC], initial consonant and vowel [CV_], or the two consonants [C_C]), similarity remained constant. The results show that the influence of sub-syllabic mechanisms on STM performance is independent of speech production processes, and similarity in the pattern of results suggests that the same mechanisms subserve the recall of words and nonwords in STM. It is argued that the results are more consistent with psycholinguistic models than nonlinguistic models of STM, and implications for current STM models are discussed.     

Phonological processes and the perception of phonotactically illegal consonant clusters

The perception of consonant clusters that are phonotactically illegal word initially in English (e.g., /tl/, /sr/) was investigated to determine whether listeners’ phonological knowledge of the language influences speech processing. Experiment 1 examined whether the phonotactic context effect (Massaro & Cohen, 1983), a bias toward hearing illegal sequences (e.g., /tl/) as legal (e.g., /tr/), is more likely due to knowledge of the legal phoneme combinations in English or to a frequency effect. In Experiment 2, Experiment 1 was repeated with the clusters occurring word medially to assess whether phonotactic rules of syllabification modulate the phonotactic effect. Experiment 3 examined whether vowel epenthesis, another phonological process, might also affect listeners’ perception of illegal sequences as legal by biasing them to hear a vowel between the consonants of the cluster (e.g., /talee/). Results suggest that knowledge of the phonotactically permissible sequences in English can affect phoneme processing in multiple ways.     

Effects of phoneme repertoire

In three experiments, listeners detected vowel or consonant targets in lists of CV syllables constructed from five vowels and five consonants. Responses were faster in a predictable context (e.g., listening for a vowel target in a list of syllables all beginning with the same consonant) than in an unpredictable context (e.g., listening for a vowel target in a list of syllables beginning with different consonants). In Experiment 1, the listeners’ native language was Dutch, in which vowel and consonant repertoires are similar in size. The difference between predictable and unpredictable contexts was comparable for vowel and consonant targets. In Experiments 2 and 3, the listeners’ native language was Spanish, which has four times as many consonants as vowels; here effects of an unpredictable consonant context on vowel detection were significantly greater than effects of an unpredictable vowel context on consonant detection. This finding suggests that listeners’ processing of phonemes takes into account the constitution of their language’s phonemic repertoire and the implications that this has for contextual variability.