A “labial” feature analyzer in speech perception

Abstract

A selective adaptation experiment was conducted to determine the ability of various adapting stimuli to alter the perception of a series of 13 synthetic speech syllables. The synthetic test syllables, which varied acoustically in the starting frequency and direction of second- and third-formant transitions, included stop consonant distinctions ofplace of articulation for the syllable types [bae], [dae], and [gae]. A systematic adaptation effect was produced in the locus of the bae-bae phonetic boundary for these stimuli after repetitive listening to each of the following adapting syllables: [bae], [phae], [mae], and [vae], indicating that perception ofplace distinctions among the stop consonants can be altered even by repetitive listening to certain speech sounds not belonging to the stop-consonant class.