Electroacoustic contingency management of the acoustic spectra of speech

Three studies involving the manipulation of the acoustic spectrum of speech are described. An array of electronic equipment was set up which signaled the presence or absence of certain frequency characteristics of speech. Subjects (Ss) were given feedback for production of speech containing targeted frequencies. The studies demonstrated that acoustic spectrum is amenable to modification by electroacoustic contingency management. It was indicated that the modified spectra are predictable and related to the phonetic structure of the language. Also, it was demonstrated that a sequence of spectra could be modified.