Differences in cue weights for speech perception are correlated for individuals within and across contrasts

Abstract

Speech perception requires multiple acoustic cues. Cue weighting may differ across individuals but be systematic within individuals. The current study compared individuals' cue weights within and across contrasts. Forty-two listeners performed a two-alternative forced choice task for four out of five sets of minimal pairs, each varying orthogonally in two dimensions. Individuals' cue weights within a contrast were positively correlated for bet-bat, Luce-lose, and sock-shock, but not for bog-dog and dear-tear. Importantly, individuals' cue weights were also positively correlated across contrasts. This indicates that some individuals are better able to extract and use phonetic information across different dimensions.