Internal structure of phonetic categories: effects of speaking rate.
Many studies have shown that listeners process speech in a rate-dependent manner, altering the location of phonetic category boundaries in accord with the acoustic consequences of a change in rate during speech production. In a recent series of papers that focused on a voicing contrast, we reported that the perceptual adjustment for rate is not limited to the region of the category boundary, but extends to well within the category, producing a change in which stimuli are perceived to be the best category exemplars. In the current paper, we provide evidence for the generality of this effect by showing analogous results for a /b/-/w/ contrast, specified by transition duration. The implications of these findings for models of rate-dependent processing are discussed.
Miller
J L
JL
Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA. jlmiller@neu.edu
O'Rourke
T B
TB
Volaitis
L E
LE
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010700:Phonetics; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D013067:Speech Perception; D013997:Time Factors