The verbal transformation effect and the perceptual organization of speech:influence of formant transitions and F0-contour continuity

Abstract

This study explored the role of formant transitions and F0-contour continuity in binding together speech sounds into a coherent stream. Listening to a repeating recorded word produces verbal transformations to different forms; stream segregation contributes to this effect and so it can be used to measure changes in perceptual coherence. In experiment 1, monosyllables with strong formant transitions between the initial consonant and following vowel were monotonized; each monosyllable was paired with a weak-transitions counterpart. Further stimuli were derived by replacing the consonant-vowel transitions with samples from adjacent steady portions. Each stimulus was concatenated into a 3-min-long sequence. Listeners only reported more forms in the transitions-removed condition for strong-transitions words, for which formant-frequency discontinuities were substantial. In experiment 2, the F0 contour of all-voiced monosyllables was shaped to follow a rising or falling pattern, spanning one octave. Consecutive tokens either had the same contour, giving an abrupt F0 change between each token, or alternated, giving a continuous contour. Discontinuous sequences caused more transformations and forms, and shorter times to the first transformation. Overall, these findings support the notion that continuity cues provided by formant transitions and the F0 contour play an important role in maintaining the perceptual coherence of speech.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heares.2015.01.007
Divisions: College of Health & Life Sciences > School of Psychology
College of Health & Life Sciences > Clinical and Systems Neuroscience
College of Health & Life Sciences
College of Health & Life Sciences > School of Optometry > Vision, Hearing and Language
College of Health & Life Sciences > School of Optometry > Centre for Vision and Hearing Research
Additional Information: © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Funding: EPSRC (EP/F016484/1).
Uncontrolled Keywords: consonant-vowel-consonant,CVC,fundamental frequency,PSOLA,Pitch Synchronous Overlap and Add method,verbal transformation effect,VTE,Sensory Systems
Publication ISSN: 1878-5891
Last Modified: 18 Mar 2024 08:13
Date Deposited: 05 Mar 2015 14:05
Full Text Link:
Related URLs: http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK (Scopus URL)
https://www.sci ... 0118?via%3Dihub (Publisher URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2015-05
Published Online Date: 2015-01-22
Authors: Stachurski, Marcin
Summers, Robert J. (ORCID Profile 0000-0003-4857-7354)
Roberts, Brian (ORCID Profile 0000-0002-4232-9459)

Download

[img]

Version: Published Version

License: Creative Commons Attribution


Export / Share Citation


Statistics

Additional statistics for this record