Contingent feature analysis in speech perception

Abstract

A contingent adaptation effect is reported for speech perception. Experiments were conducted to test the effects of an alternating sequence of two adapting syllables, [da] and [t hi], on the perception of two series of synthetic speech syllables, [ba]-[p ha] and [bi]-[p hi]. Each of the test series consisted of 11 stimuli varying in voice onset time, a cue which distinguishes voiced from voiceless stop consonants in word-initial position. The [da]-[t hi] adapting sequence produced opposite shifts in the loci of the phonetic boundaries for the two test series. For the [ba]-[p ha] series, listeners made fewer identification responses to the [b] category after adaptation, while for the [bi]-[p hi] series, listeners made more responses to the [b] category. The opposing shifts indicate that the perceptual analysis of voicing in stop consonants is carried out with respect to vowel environment. © 1974 Psychonomic Society, Inc.