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A possible auditory basis for internal structure of phonetic categories
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
|June 1, 1983
Summary
Selective adaptation reveals that auditory processing groups speech sounds into categories. These auditory categories have internal structure, influencing how we perceive speech sounds.
Area of Science:
- Psycholinguistics
- Auditory Perception
- Speech Processing
Background:
- Perceived category goodness in speech perception is well-documented.
- The underlying basis of category goodness differences, particularly at pre-phonetic levels, remains unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if differences in perceived category goodness have a basis in prephonetic, auditory processing.
- To explore the structure of auditory categories using selective adaptation.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a selective adaptation procedure with three phonetic contrasts: /b-p/, /d-g/, /b-w/.
- Assessed adaptation magnitude across stimulus continua within phonetic categories.
Main Results:
- Obtained nonmonotonic adaptation functions for all phonetic contrasts.
- Demonstrated an initial increase in adaptation, followed by a decrease, as stimuli moved from the category boundary.
Conclusions:
- Auditory processing limits the range of stimuli relevant to a contrast, forming auditory categories.
- Auditory categories exhibit internal structure, with varying stimulus effectiveness.
- This auditory category structure may underlie phonetic-level perceived category goodness.