Integral processing in the perception of phonemes within and across syllables
Gail R. Tomiak, James R. Sawusch · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1986
Analogs of speech syllables were used in a speeded classification task with subjects instructed to treat the stimuli as speech or as nonspeech. Previous research using this paradigm with noise-tone analogs of monosyllables and disyllables has shown that single syllable stimuli show integral processing of adjacent phones (speech) but separable processing of adjacent pitch and amplitude information (nonspeech). Furthermore, this integrality effect is more pronounced within syllables than across syllable boundaries. We suggested that this pattern of results reflects a speech mode of processing in which phonetic information and knowledge of the consequences of coarticulation is largely represented within syllabic units. To assess the generality of these previous findings, new analogs of monosyllabic and disyllabic speech stimuli were constructed and tested in the speeded classification task. Results will be discussed in relation to the use of coarticulatory information in speech processing. [Work supported by NINCDS.]