Multidimensional scaling analysis of symmetric and nonsymmetric consonant confusion matrices: A comparison of different proximity measures
Moshe Yuchtman, Robert C. Bilger · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1982
In a recent paper [Yuchtman and Bilger, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Suppl. 1 71, S75 (1982)] we reported that two proximity measures, namely, Ln S [Soli and Arabie, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 66, 46–59 (1979)] and the index of sensitivity, d′, yielded similar multidimensional solutions in SINDSCL analysis of consonant confusion matrices. We have now studied these measures in a comparative analysis of symmetric and nonsymmetric consonant confusion matrices, expecting differences between Ln S and d′, since the first measure, unlike the second assumes matrix symmetry. 48 consonant confusion matrices of 24 subjects were analyzed. For each subject stimuli were presented with presence of noise or in the quiet in procedure similar to the one described by Wang and Bilger [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 69, 832–845 (1973)]. An index of symmetry was obtained for each matrix by using the procedure suggested by Hubert and Baker [Qual. Quant. 13, 77–84 (1979)]. The 12 matrices with the highest or lowest symmetry scores were subjected to further analysis. For each of these matrices we calculated three proximity measures: S, Ln S, and d′. They were then analyzed using the SINDSCL program. The results indicate that: (1) for all of these measures, a given n-dimensional configuration accounted for larger proportion of the variance in the high-symmetry than in the low symmetry matrices; and (2) for both types of matrices, d′ and Ln S accounted for roughly the same proportion of variance which was higher than that yielded for S. We are now analyzing the specific solutions obtained for each of these measures. [This work was supported by NINCDS.]