Context effects as auditory contrast

Three experiments are reported that collectively show that listeners perceive speech sounds as contrasting auditorily with neighboring sounds. Experiment 1 replicates the well-established finding that listeners categorize more of a [d–g] continuum as [g] after [l] than after [r]. Experiments 2 and 3...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Attention, perception & psychophysics Vol. 76; no. 5; pp. 1437 - 1464
Main Authors:	Kingston, John, Kawahara, Shigeto, Chambless, Della, Key, Michael, Mash, Daniel, Watsky, Sarah
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Boston Springer US 01-07-2014 Springer Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:	Acoustic Stimulation Adult Analysis of Variance Audition Auditory Perception Behavioral Science and Psychology Bias Biological and medical sciences Cognitive Psychology Compensation Context Effect Discrimination (Psychology) Discrimination Learning Energy Feedback (Response) Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology Gestures Humans Language Listening Comprehension Perception Phonetics Phonology Production and perception of spoken language Psychoacoustics Psychology Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry Psychology. Psychophysiology Sensory perception Speech Speech - physiology Speech Perception - physiology Stimuli Syllables Auditory contrast Speech Context effects Compensation for coarticulation Nonspeech Context Human Cognition Verbal perception Coarticulation Experimental study Contrast Hearing Language Compensation Perception
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Summary:	Three experiments are reported that collectively show that listeners perceive speech sounds as contrasting auditorily with neighboring sounds. Experiment 1 replicates the well-established finding that listeners categorize more of a [d–g] continuum as [g] after [l] than after [r]. Experiments 2 and 3 show that listeners discriminate stimuli in which the energy concentrations differ in frequency between the spectra of neighboring sounds better than those in which they do not differ. In Experiment 2 , [alga–arda] pairs, in which the energy concentrations in the liquid-stop sequences are H(igh) L(ow)–LH, were more discriminable than [alda–arga] pairs, in which they are HH–LL. In Experiment 3 , [da] and [ga] syllables were more easily discriminated when they were preceded by lower and higher pure tones, respectively—that is, tones that differed from the stops’ higher and lower F 3 onset frequencies—than when they were preceded by H and L pure tones with similar frequencies. These discrimination results show that contrast with the target’s context exaggerates its perceived value when energy concentrations differ in frequency between the target’s spectrum and its context’s spectrum. Because contrast with its context does more that merely shift the criterion for categorizing the target, it cannot be produced by neural adaptation. The finding that nonspeech contexts exaggerate the perceived values of speech targets also rules out compensation for coarticulation by showing that their values depend on the proximal auditory qualities evoked by the stimuli’s acoustic properties, rather than the distal articulatory gestures.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	1943-3921 1943-393X
DOI:	10.3758/s13414-013-0593-z