The effect of coarticulation on the role of transitions in vowel perception

Sequences of the form V1bV2bV1 were recorded by a male speaker. From each sequence, three types of stimuli were edited out: (1) the medial vowel, from after the burst of the preceding stop to the start of the closure of the following stop; (2) the quasi-steady state of the medial vowel, and (3) the transitions alone of the medial vowel (complement to 2). The perception of each type of stimulus was examined in separate tests and the results were compared. For two of the three contexts (V1 = /i/, /u/), scores for stimuli of the third condition (transitions) were as high as for the first (control) condition, supporting the importance of transitions as cues for vowel identity. For the third context (/a/), however, performance was significantly lower, thus suggesting an influence of vowel context on the contribution of transitions to vowel identification.