The role of auditory feature detectors in the perception of speech

Abstract

Two adaptation experiments were conducted to determine some of the sufficient acoustic properties for excitation of the feature detectors underlying perception of voicing and place distinctions in speech. It was found that the greater the acoustic overlap between the adapting stimulus and the test continuum, the greater the adaptation effect. In addition, evidence was obtained that various parts of the speech signal (e.g., the second formant alone) are sufficient cues for adaptation of detectors. An outline of a model in which phonetic feature information is determined at an auditory level of analysis is presented. © 1975 Psychonomic Society, Inc.