Effect of speaking rate on the perceptual structure of a phonetic category.
When listeners process temporal properties of speech that convey information about the phonetic segments of the language, they do so in a rate-dependent manner. This is seen as a shift in the location of the phonetic category boundary along a temporal continuum toward longer values of the acoustic property in question, as speech is slowed. In a series of experiments, we found that the adjustment for rate is not confined to the region of the category boundary, but extends throughout the phonetic category. Specifically, a change in rate modified the range of stimuli identified as members of a phonetic category, as well as which stimuli were overtly judged to be good exemplars of the category. These findings suggest that the listener's adjustment for speaking rate entails a comprehensive perceptual remapping between acoustic signal and phonetic structure.
Miller
J L
JL
Volaitis
L E
LE
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D006801:Humans; D010700:Phonetics; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013065:Speech Intelligibility; D013067:Speech Perception