Stop identification from vocalic transition plus vowel segments of CV and VC syllables: a follow-up study

In a recent article in the Journal [L. C. W. Pols and M. E. H. Schouten, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 64, 1333-1337 (1978)], it was concluded that perception experiments which present CV syllables with the consonant bursts deleted invoke a "click sensation" and that this sensation has a deleterious affect on the perception of the consonants. In order to directly assess the "click sensation" hypothesis, a computer-based speech editing system was used which smooths onsets and offsets of stimuli and therefore eliminates the possibility of an acoustic click. Subjects identified voiced and voiceless stops from vocalic transition + vowel stimuli edited from CV and VC syllables. The findings were as follows: (1) Consonant identification from vocalic transition + vowel segments in VC syllables was significantly greater than that from vocalic transition + vowel segments in CV syllables; and (2) The superiority of the scores for VC vocalic transition + vowel segment was found for both voiced and voiceless stops, but it was not as great for voiced stops. Although there are differences in magnitude of findings between this study and those which employed other deletion techniques, the reliability and direction of the results were similar. The results do not support the "click sensation"hypothesis and suggest that other mechanisms must account for differences between CV and VC syllables in the perception of sound segments.