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The interrelation between acoustic context effects and available response categories in speech sound categorization
Titia Benders1, Paola Escudero, Matthias J Sjerps
1Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication, University of Amsterdam, Spuistraat 210, 1012 VT Amsterdam, The Netherlands. titia.benders@uva.nl
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
|April 17, 2012
Summary
Acoustic context influences vowel sound categorization. However, presenting more response options reduces the impact of broad and local acoustic context on vowel perception.
Area of Science:
- Phonetics
- Psychoacoustics
- Auditory Perception
Background:
- Sound categorization is crucial for speech comprehension.
- Acoustic context, including stimulus range and preceding sounds, can influence perception.
- The number of available response categories may modulate contextual effects.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how broad and local acoustic context affect vowel categorization.
- To examine the role of the number of response categories in modulating these contextual influences.
- To understand the interplay between acoustic properties, context, and listener referents in sound perception.
Main Methods:
- 64 Peruvian Spanish listeners categorized vowels along an /i/ to /e/ continuum.
- Manipulated stimulus range (broad context) and preceding stimuli (local context).
- Varied the number of response categories (two vs. five options).
Main Results:
- The perceptual category boundary shifted based on the stimulus range.
- Preceding stimuli exerted a contrastive influence on categorization.
- Contextual effects were diminished when five response options were available compared to two.
Conclusions:
- Vowel categorization is influenced by both stimulus acoustics and acoustic context (broad and local).
- The number of available response categories moderates the impact of acoustic context.
- Listener's internal referents play a role in how context affects sound perception.
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