Perceptuomotor compatibility effects in vowels: Beyond phonemic identity

Area of Science:

• Speech Production
• Psycholinguistics
• Phonetics

Background:

• Perceptuomotor compatibility between perceived and produced speech sounds impacts response times (RTs).
• Previous research primarily focused on phonemic-level compatibility, especially with consonants.
• Subphonemic-level compatibility effects in speech production, particularly for vowels, remain less explored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the influence of phonemic and subphonemic congruency on speech production RTs using vowels.
• To determine if subphonemic similarity, beyond phonemic identity, affects the perception-production link.
• To extend understanding of perceptuomotor interactions to vowel sounds at a detailed representational level.

Main Methods:

• A cue-distractor task was employed, presenting a visual cue for a response vowel and an auditory distractor vowel during production planning.
• Phonemic congruency (same vs. different vowels) and subphonemic similarity (based on phonological features) were manipulated.
• Response times were measured to assess the impact of these congruencies and similarities.

Main Results:

• Phonemic congruency between response and distractor vowels significantly affected RTs, similar to findings with consonants.
• Increased subphonemic similarity, quantified by phonological distance, led to faster RTs.
• The specific patterns of RT modulation varied across different vowel pairs, suggesting complex interactions.

Conclusions:

• Speech production is sensitive to perceptuomotor compatibility at the subphonemic level for vowels, not just phonemic identity.
• The findings necessitate refining models of the perception-production link to account for detailed phonological feature representations.
• This study expands the understanding of perceptuomotor interactions from consonants to vowels at a finer representational grain.