Vol 33 No 1 (2014)
Speech
A study on the role of temporal integration of VOT, vowel length and noise in the perception of bilabial stops
How to Cite
Saransh Jain, NP, N., & Nair, S. P. (1). A study on the role of temporal integration of VOT, vowel length and noise in the perception of bilabial stops. Journal of All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, 33(1), 51-58. Retrieved from http://203.129.241.91/jaiish/index.php/aiish/article/view/780
Abstract
The present study aimed at investigating the role of temporal integration of voice onset time (VOT), vowel length and noise in the perception of bi- labial stop consonants. For this purpose, a 9 point continuum of voiced to voiceless sound was constructed in a synthetic speech token and each point along the continuum was associated with long and short vowel separately. The stimuli were presented to 30 normal hearing individuals in quiet and noisy situation. Categorical perception was assessed for the identication of perceptual boundary and the reaction time task. The results revealed that vowel length had signicant eect on perception of bilabial stop voicing only in quiet but not in noisy situations. Thus, it was concluded that temporal integration of VOT and vowel length are important cues in quiet situation, but in the presence of noise, individuals ap-pear to use some other cues to perceive voicing of bilabial stop consonants.
References
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detection and classi cation of stop consonants using an
acoustic phonetic feature based system. Proceedings of
XIV International Congress on Phonetic Sciences, (pp.
1709-1712), Berkeley.
Alwan, A. A. H. (1992). Modeling speech perception in
noise. The stop consonants as a case study. RLE Tech-
nical Report No. 569. Unpublished master's disserta-
tion submitted to Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Balasubramanian, T. (1981). Duration of vowels in Tamil.
Journal of Phonetics, 9, 151-161.
Blumstein, S. E., Myers, E. B., & Rissman, J. (2005). The
perception of voice onset time: An fMRI investigation of
phonetic category structure. Journal of Cognitive Neu-
roscience, 17(9), 1353-1366.
Boothroyd, A. (1998). The perception of speech by chil-
dren with hearing loss. In A. Weisel (Ed.), Issues unre-
solved. New perspectives on language and deaf education
(pp. 103-116). Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University
Press.
Crystal, T. H., & House, A. S. (1988). Segmental dura-
tions in connected-speech signals: Current results. Jour-
nal of the Acoustical Society of America, 83(4), 1553-
1573.
Davis, S., & Summers, W. V. (1989). Vowel length and clo-
sure duration in word-medial VC sequences, Journal of
Phonetics, 17, 339-353.
Delattre, P. (1962). Some factors of vowel duration and their
cross-linguistic validity. Journal of the Acoustical Soci-
ety of America, 34, 1141-1142.
Escudero, P. (2009). The linguistic perception of similar L2
sounds. In P. Boersma & S. Hamann (Eds.), Phonology
in perception (pp. 151-190). Berlin, Germany: Walter
deGruyter GmbH & Co.
Feldman, N. H.,^A
Griths, T. L., & Morgan, J. L. (2009).
The in
uence of categories on perception: explaining the
perceptual magnet e ect as optimal statistical inference.
Psychological Review, 116(4), 752-782.
Formby, C., Childers, D. G., & Lalwani, A. L. (1996). Label-
ing and discrimination of a synthetic fricative continuum
in noise: A study of absolute duration and relative onset
time cues. Journal of Speech & Hearing Research, 39,
4-18.
Fourakis, M., & Iverson, G. (1984). On the `incomplete neu-
tralization' of German nal obstruents. Phonetica, 41,
140-149.
Fox, R. A., & Terbeek, D. (1977). Dental
aps, vowel dura-
tion and rule ordering in American English, Journal of
Phonetics, 5, 27-34.
Homma, Y. (1981). Durational relationship between
Japanese stops and vowels. Journal of Phonetics 9, 273-
281.
House, A. S. (1961). On vowel duration in English. Jour-
nal of the Acoustical Society of America, 33, 1174-
1178.
Jiang, J., Chen, M., & Alwan, A. (2006). On the percep-
tion of voicing in syllable-initial plosives in noise. Jour-
nal of the Acoustical Society of America, 119, 1092-
1105.
Jong, P. F. (1991). The measurement of attention: The
construction of attention tests for childre. Unpublished
Master's Dissertation submitted to Vrije University, Am-
sterdam
Lisker, L., & Abramson, A. S. (1964). A cross language
study of voicing in initial stops: acoustic measurements.
Word, 20, 384-422.
Loizou, P. (2009). COLEA: a matlab software tool for
speech analysis. Retrieved February 18, 2014 from
http://www.utdallas.edu/ loizou/speech/colea.htm.
Lyberg, B. (1981). Temporal properties of spoken Swedish.
Monograph from the Institute of Linguistics, vol. 6, Uni-
versity of Stockholm.
McMurray, B. & Aslin, R. N. (2004). Anticipatory eye move-
ments reveal infants' auditory and visual categories. In-
fancy, 6(2), 203-229
McMurray, B., & Spivay, M. J. (1999). The categorical per-
ception of consonants: the interaction of learning and
processing. Proceedings of the Chicago Linguistics So-
ciety, 35, 205-219.
Miller, G. A. & Nicely, P. E. (1955). An analysis of
perceptual confusion among some English consonants.
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 27, 338-
352.
Miller, J. L., & Liberman, A. M. (1979). Some e ects of
later-occurring information on the perception of stop
consonant and semi-vowel. Perception & Psychophysics,
25, 457-465.
Mitleb, F. (1984). Voicing e ect on vowel duration is not
an absolute universal. Journal of Phonetics, 12, 23-
27.
Nataraja, N. P. (2000). Transformation of speech of hearing
impaired. Departmental project report submitted to All
India Institute of Speech and Hearing.
Nguyen, N., & Hawkins, S., (2003). Temporal integration in
the perception of speech. Journal of Phonetics, 31(3/4 ),
279-287.
O'Shaugnessy, D. (1981). A study of French vowel and
consonant duration? Journal of Phonetics, 9, 385-
406.
Penner, M. J., & Cudahy, E. (1973). Critical masking in-
terval: a temporal analog of the critical band. Jour-
nal of the Acoustical Society of America, 54, 1530-
1534.
Peterson, G.E., & Lehiste, I. (1960). Duration of syllable nu-
clei in English. Journal of Acoustical Society of Amer-
ica, 32, 693-703.
Pisoni, D., & Tash, J. (1974). Reaction times to compar-
isons within and across phonetic categories. Perception
and Psychophysics, 15 , 289-290.
Plomp, R. (1964). The rate of decay of auditory sensa-
tion. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,
36(2), 277-282.
Poeppel, D. (2003). The analysis of speech in di erent
temporal integration windows: cerebral lateralization as
`asymmetric sampling in time'. Speech Communication,
41, 245-255.
Raphael, L. (1972). Preceding vowel duration as a cue to the
perception of the voicing characteristic of word- nal con-
sonants in American English. Journal of the Acoustical
Society of America, 51(3), 1296-1303.
Repp, B. (1983). ?Bidirectional contrast e ect in the
perception of VC-CV sequences, Perception and Psy-
chophysics, 33 (2 ), 147-155.
Savithri, S. R. (1986). Duration analysis of Kannada vow-
els. Journal of the Acoustical Society of India, 14(2),
34-40.
Shalev, M., Ladefoged, P., & Bhaskararao, P. (1994). Pho-
netics of Toda. PILC Journal of Dravidic Studies, 4,
19-56.
Syrdal-Lasky, A. (1978). E ects of intensity on the categor-
ical perception of stop consonants and isolated second
formant transitions. Perception & Psychophysics, 23,
420-432.
Umeda, N. (1975). Vowel duration in American English.
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 58(2), 434-
445.
Velayudhan, S. (1971). Vowel duration in Malayalam: An
acoustic phonetic study. Trivandrum: Dravidian Lin-
guistic Association of India.
Viemeister, N. F. (1979). Temporal modulation trans-
fer functions based on modulation thresholds. Jour-
nal of the Acoustical Society of America 66 (5), 1364-
1380.
Viemeister, N. F., & Wake eld, G. H. (1991). Temporal in-
tegration and multiple looks. Journal of the Acoustical
Society of America 90 (2), 858-865.
Wang, M. D., & Bilger, R. C. (1973). Consonant confu-
sions in noise: a study of perceptual features. Jour-
nal of the Acoustical Society of America, 54(5), 1248-
1266.
Parikh, G., & Loizou, P. (2005). The in
uence of noise on
vowel and consonant cues. Journal of the Acoustical So-
ciety of America, 118, 3874-3888.
Whalen, D. (1991). Perception of the English /s/-/S/ dis-
tinction relies on fricative noises and transitions, not on
brief spectral slices. Journal of the Acoustical Society of
America, 90, 1776-1785.
Whalen, D., Abramson, A., Lisker, L., & Mody, M. (1993).
F0 gives voicing information even with unambiguous
voice onset times. Journal of the Acoustical Society
of America, 4(1), 2152-2159.
Whitehead, R. L., & Jones, K. O. (1976). In
uence of con-
sonant environment on duration of vowels produced by
normal hearing, hearing impaired and deaf adult speak-
ers. Journal of Acoustical Society of America, 60, 513-
515.
detection and classi cation of stop consonants using an
acoustic phonetic feature based system. Proceedings of
XIV International Congress on Phonetic Sciences, (pp.
1709-1712), Berkeley.
Alwan, A. A. H. (1992). Modeling speech perception in
noise. The stop consonants as a case study. RLE Tech-
nical Report No. 569. Unpublished master's disserta-
tion submitted to Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Balasubramanian, T. (1981). Duration of vowels in Tamil.
Journal of Phonetics, 9, 151-161.
Blumstein, S. E., Myers, E. B., & Rissman, J. (2005). The
perception of voice onset time: An fMRI investigation of
phonetic category structure. Journal of Cognitive Neu-
roscience, 17(9), 1353-1366.
Boothroyd, A. (1998). The perception of speech by chil-
dren with hearing loss. In A. Weisel (Ed.), Issues unre-
solved. New perspectives on language and deaf education
(pp. 103-116). Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University
Press.
Crystal, T. H., & House, A. S. (1988). Segmental dura-
tions in connected-speech signals: Current results. Jour-
nal of the Acoustical Society of America, 83(4), 1553-
1573.
Davis, S., & Summers, W. V. (1989). Vowel length and clo-
sure duration in word-medial VC sequences, Journal of
Phonetics, 17, 339-353.
Delattre, P. (1962). Some factors of vowel duration and their
cross-linguistic validity. Journal of the Acoustical Soci-
ety of America, 34, 1141-1142.
Escudero, P. (2009). The linguistic perception of similar L2
sounds. In P. Boersma & S. Hamann (Eds.), Phonology
in perception (pp. 151-190). Berlin, Germany: Walter
deGruyter GmbH & Co.
Feldman, N. H.,^A
Griths, T. L., & Morgan, J. L. (2009).
The in
uence of categories on perception: explaining the
perceptual magnet e ect as optimal statistical inference.
Psychological Review, 116(4), 752-782.
Formby, C., Childers, D. G., & Lalwani, A. L. (1996). Label-
ing and discrimination of a synthetic fricative continuum
in noise: A study of absolute duration and relative onset
time cues. Journal of Speech & Hearing Research, 39,
4-18.
Fourakis, M., & Iverson, G. (1984). On the `incomplete neu-
tralization' of German nal obstruents. Phonetica, 41,
140-149.
Fox, R. A., & Terbeek, D. (1977). Dental
aps, vowel dura-
tion and rule ordering in American English, Journal of
Phonetics, 5, 27-34.
Homma, Y. (1981). Durational relationship between
Japanese stops and vowels. Journal of Phonetics 9, 273-
281.
House, A. S. (1961). On vowel duration in English. Jour-
nal of the Acoustical Society of America, 33, 1174-
1178.
Jiang, J., Chen, M., & Alwan, A. (2006). On the percep-
tion of voicing in syllable-initial plosives in noise. Jour-
nal of the Acoustical Society of America, 119, 1092-
1105.
Jong, P. F. (1991). The measurement of attention: The
construction of attention tests for childre. Unpublished
Master's Dissertation submitted to Vrije University, Am-
sterdam
Lisker, L., & Abramson, A. S. (1964). A cross language
study of voicing in initial stops: acoustic measurements.
Word, 20, 384-422.
Loizou, P. (2009). COLEA: a matlab software tool for
speech analysis. Retrieved February 18, 2014 from
http://www.utdallas.edu/ loizou/speech/colea.htm.
Lyberg, B. (1981). Temporal properties of spoken Swedish.
Monograph from the Institute of Linguistics, vol. 6, Uni-
versity of Stockholm.
McMurray, B. & Aslin, R. N. (2004). Anticipatory eye move-
ments reveal infants' auditory and visual categories. In-
fancy, 6(2), 203-229
McMurray, B., & Spivay, M. J. (1999). The categorical per-
ception of consonants: the interaction of learning and
processing. Proceedings of the Chicago Linguistics So-
ciety, 35, 205-219.
Miller, G. A. & Nicely, P. E. (1955). An analysis of
perceptual confusion among some English consonants.
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 27, 338-
352.
Miller, J. L., & Liberman, A. M. (1979). Some e ects of
later-occurring information on the perception of stop
consonant and semi-vowel. Perception & Psychophysics,
25, 457-465.
Mitleb, F. (1984). Voicing e ect on vowel duration is not
an absolute universal. Journal of Phonetics, 12, 23-
27.
Nataraja, N. P. (2000). Transformation of speech of hearing
impaired. Departmental project report submitted to All
India Institute of Speech and Hearing.
Nguyen, N., & Hawkins, S., (2003). Temporal integration in
the perception of speech. Journal of Phonetics, 31(3/4 ),
279-287.
O'Shaugnessy, D. (1981). A study of French vowel and
consonant duration? Journal of Phonetics, 9, 385-
406.
Penner, M. J., & Cudahy, E. (1973). Critical masking in-
terval: a temporal analog of the critical band. Jour-
nal of the Acoustical Society of America, 54, 1530-
1534.
Peterson, G.E., & Lehiste, I. (1960). Duration of syllable nu-
clei in English. Journal of Acoustical Society of Amer-
ica, 32, 693-703.
Pisoni, D., & Tash, J. (1974). Reaction times to compar-
isons within and across phonetic categories. Perception
and Psychophysics, 15 , 289-290.
Plomp, R. (1964). The rate of decay of auditory sensa-
tion. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,
36(2), 277-282.
Poeppel, D. (2003). The analysis of speech in di erent
temporal integration windows: cerebral lateralization as
`asymmetric sampling in time'. Speech Communication,
41, 245-255.
Raphael, L. (1972). Preceding vowel duration as a cue to the
perception of the voicing characteristic of word- nal con-
sonants in American English. Journal of the Acoustical
Society of America, 51(3), 1296-1303.
Repp, B. (1983). ?Bidirectional contrast e ect in the
perception of VC-CV sequences, Perception and Psy-
chophysics, 33 (2 ), 147-155.
Savithri, S. R. (1986). Duration analysis of Kannada vow-
els. Journal of the Acoustical Society of India, 14(2),
34-40.
Shalev, M., Ladefoged, P., & Bhaskararao, P. (1994). Pho-
netics of Toda. PILC Journal of Dravidic Studies, 4,
19-56.
Syrdal-Lasky, A. (1978). E ects of intensity on the categor-
ical perception of stop consonants and isolated second
formant transitions. Perception & Psychophysics, 23,
420-432.
Umeda, N. (1975). Vowel duration in American English.
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 58(2), 434-
445.
Velayudhan, S. (1971). Vowel duration in Malayalam: An
acoustic phonetic study. Trivandrum: Dravidian Lin-
guistic Association of India.
Viemeister, N. F. (1979). Temporal modulation trans-
fer functions based on modulation thresholds. Jour-
nal of the Acoustical Society of America 66 (5), 1364-
1380.
Viemeister, N. F., & Wake eld, G. H. (1991). Temporal in-
tegration and multiple looks. Journal of the Acoustical
Society of America 90 (2), 858-865.
Wang, M. D., & Bilger, R. C. (1973). Consonant confu-
sions in noise: a study of perceptual features. Jour-
nal of the Acoustical Society of America, 54(5), 1248-
1266.
Parikh, G., & Loizou, P. (2005). The in
uence of noise on
vowel and consonant cues. Journal of the Acoustical So-
ciety of America, 118, 3874-3888.
Whalen, D. (1991). Perception of the English /s/-/S/ dis-
tinction relies on fricative noises and transitions, not on
brief spectral slices. Journal of the Acoustical Society of
America, 90, 1776-1785.
Whalen, D., Abramson, A., Lisker, L., & Mody, M. (1993).
F0 gives voicing information even with unambiguous
voice onset times. Journal of the Acoustical Society
of America, 4(1), 2152-2159.
Whitehead, R. L., & Jones, K. O. (1976). In
uence of con-
sonant environment on duration of vowels produced by
normal hearing, hearing impaired and deaf adult speak-
ers. Journal of Acoustical Society of America, 60, 513-
515.