Effects of syllable duration on stop-glide identification in syllable-initial and syllable-final position by humans and monkeys.
Humans and monkeys were compared in their identification of phoneme boundaries along synthetic stop-glide continua in syllable-initial /bo/-/wa/ or syllable-final /bab/-/baw/ contrasts differing in overall syllable duration. For both contrasts, humans were first tested with a conventional written identification procedure. Here, similar phoneme boundaries emerged and shifted with increases in syllable duration toward longer transitions, as has previously been reported in the literature for syllable-initial data (Miller & Liberman, 1979). Humans and monkeys were then tested on these contrasts, using a go/no-go identification procedure specifically designed for monkeys. Here also, stop-glide boundaries emerged and shifted with increased syllable duration for both species, although monkey "boundaries" were at longer durations than humans' in syllable-final position. The results indicate that there are both gross similarities and subtle differences between humans and monkeys with regard to the stop-glide context effect. The results are discussed in relation to the hypothesis that general mammalian auditory mechanisms are responsible for this effect.
Sinnott
J M
JM
Department of Psychology, University of South Alabama, Mobile 36688, USA. jsinnott@jaguarl.usouthal.edu
Brown
C H
CH
Borneman
M A
MA
D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D000882:Haplorhini / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D010700:Phonetics; D013063:Speech Discrimination Tests; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors