Gradient sensitivity to within-category variation in words and syllables

Bob McMurray; Richard N Aslin; Michael K Tanenhaus; Michael J Spivey; Dana Subik

doi:10.1037/a0011747

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Gradient sensitivity to within-category variation in words and syllables

Journal article

Peer reviewed

Gradient sensitivity to within-category variation in words and syllables

Bob McMurray, Richard N Aslin, Michael K Tanenhaus, Michael J Spivey and Dana Subik

Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, Vol.34(6), pp.1609-1631

12/2008

DOI: 10.1037/a0011747

PMCID: PMC3011988

PMID: 19045996

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/3011988View

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Abstract

Five experiments monitored eye movements in phoneme and lexical identification tasks to examine the effect of within-category sub-phonetic variation on the perception of stop consonants. Experiment 1 demonstrated gradient effects along VOT continua made from natural speech, replicating results with synthetic speech (\nMcMurray, Tanenhaus & Aslin,\nCognition\n, 2002\n). Experiments 2–5 used synthetic VOT continua to examine effects of response alternatives (2 vs. 4), task (lexical vs. phoneme decision), and type of token (word vs. CV). A gradient effect of VOT in at least one half of the continuum was observed in all conditions. These results suggest that during on-line spoken word recognition lexical competitors are activated in proportion to their continuous distance from a category boundary. This gradient processing may allow listeners to anticipate upcoming acoustic/phonetic information in the speech signal and dynamically compensate for acoustic variability.

Categorical Perception

Visual World Paradigm

Subphonemic Sensitivity

Word Recognition

Speech Perception

Details

Title: Subtitle: Gradient sensitivity to within-category variation in words and syllables
Creators: Bob McMurray - Department of Psychology, University of Iowa
Richard N Aslin - Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester
Michael K Tanenhaus - Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester
Michael J Spivey - Department of Psychology, Cornell University
Dana Subik - Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, Vol.34(6), pp.1609-1631
DOI: 10.1037/a0011747
PMID: 19045996
PMCID: PMC3011988
NLM abbreviation: J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform
ISSN: 0096-1523
eISSN: 1939-1277
Grant note: DOI: 10.13039/100000002, name: National Institutes of Health, award: F31DC006537-01, DC005071
Language: English
Date published: 12/2008
Academic Unit: Communication Sciences and Disorders; Linguistics; Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute; Otolaryngology
Record Identifier: 9984070228602771

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