Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 8, 2026

Ultrasound Images of the Tongue: A Tutorial for Assessment and Remediation of Speech Sound Errors
Published on: January 3, 2017
Frequency specificity of amplitude envelope patterns in noise-vocoded speech
Kazuo Ueda1, Tomoya Araki2, Yoshitaka Nakajima1
1Unit of Perceptual Psychology, Department of Human Science/Research Center for Applied Perceptual Science, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, 815-8540, Japan.
Abstract:
We examined the frequency specificity of amplitude envelope patterns in 4 frequency bands, which universally appeared through factor analyses applied to power fluctuations of critical-band filtered speech sounds in 8 different languages/dialects [Ueda and Nakajima (2017). Sci. Rep., 7 (42468)]. A series of 3 perceptual experiments with noise-vocoded speech of Japanese sentences was conducted. Nearly perfect (92-94%) mora recognition was achieved, without any extensive training, in a control condition in which 4-band noise-vocoded speech was employed (Experiments 1-3). Blending amplitude envelope patterns of the frequency bands, which resulted in reducing the number of amplitude envelope patterns while keeping the average spectral levels unchanged, revealed a clear deteriorating effect on intelligibility (Experiment 1). Exchanging amplitude envelope patterns brought generally detrimental effects on intelligibility, especially when involving the 2 lowest bands (≲1850 Hz; Experiment 2). Exchanging spectral levels averaged in time had a small but significant deteriorating effect on intelligibility in a few conditions (Experiment 3). Frequency specificity in low-frequency-band envelope patterns thus turned out to be conspicuous in speech perception.
Related Concept Videos
Pulse amplitude and quality
A weak or absent pulse may indicate reduced cardiac output or poor left ventricular contraction, which can be signs of cardiovascular dysfunction or...
Frequency-dependent Selection
Outer Layers of the Cell Envelope
Fixed Action Patterns
What is a Frequency Distribution
Mean From a Frequency Distribution
When such a data set is encountered,...

