Abstract
The perceived onset (P-center) of a word typically does not correspond to its acoustic onset (Marcus, 1981; Morton, Marcus, & Frankish, 1976). Some researchers have suggested that the P-center of a word is solely a product of the acoustic characteristics of the word, whereas others have suggested that a word’s P-center is determined by its phonetic characteristics. The present series of experiments pitted a continuously varying acoustic parameter against a categorical phonetic percept in order to determine whether P-center location was sensitive to the phonetic identity of the prevocalic segments of a syllable. With a/ša/-/ča/-/ta/ continuum and three different /sa/-/sta/continua, we found that phonetic judgments were categorical but P-center judgments were continuous. The results demonstrate that P-center location is not determined by the phonetic identity of syllable initial consonants. Nor, however, is it determined by the rise time or the amplitude envelope of the signal as Howell (1984) has suggested. Instead, as Marcus and Morton et al. recognized, a combination of at least two different parts of the signal is at work, namely, the duration of the prevocalic consonant or consonants and, to a lesser extent, the duration of the syllable rhyme. Although the relevant dimension of each component of the syllable is duration, acoustically defined, the partitioning of the syllable is phonetically motivated. Thus, both the phonetic structure of a syllable and the particular acoustic realizations of its structure affect the location of the P-center.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen, G. (1972). The location of rhythmic stress beats in English: An experimental study, I.Language & Speech,15, 72–100
Best, C. T., Morrongiello, B., &Robson, R. (1981). Perceptual equivalence of acoustic cues in speech and nonspeech perception.Perception & Psychophysics,29, 191–211.
Fowler, C. A., Tassinary, L. G. (1981). Natural measurement criteria for speech: The anisochrony illusion. In J. Long & A. Baddeley (Eds),Attention & Performance (Vol. 9, pp. 521-535). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Healy, A. F., &Repp, B. H. (1982) Context sensitivity and phonetic mediation in categorical perception.Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception & Performance,8, 68–80
Howell, P. (1984). An acoustic determinant of perceived and produced anisochrony. In M. P. R. Van den Broecke & A. Cohen (Eds.),Proceedings of the 10th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (pp 429–433). Holland Foris
Liberman, A. M., Harris, K. S., Eimas, P. D., Lisker, L., &Bastian, J. (1961) An effect of learning on speech perception: The discrimination of durations of silence with and without phonemic significance.Language & Speech,4, 175–195.
Liberman, A. M., Harris, K. S., Hoffman, H. S., &Griffith, B. C. (1957) The discrimination of speech sounds within and across phoneme boundaries.Journal of Experimental Psychology,54, 358–368
Liberman, A. M., Harris, K. S., Kinney, J. A., &Lane, H. (1961) The discrimination of relative onset time of the components of certain speech and nonspeech patterns.Journal of Experimental Psychology,61, 379–388.
Marcus, S. M. (1976)Perceptual centres. Unpublished doctoral thesis, Cambridge University.
Marcus, S. (1981) Acoustic determinants of perceptual center (P-center) location.Perception & Psychophysics,30, 247–256
Morton, J., Marcus, S., &Frankish, C. (1976). Perceptual centers (P-centers).Psychological Review,83, 405–408.
Rapp, K. (1971)A study of syllable-timing (Papers in Linguistics). Stockholm University of Stockholm.
Repp, B. H. (1984). Categorical perception: Issues, methods, findings. In N. J. Lass (Ed.),Speech and language: Advances in basic research and practice (Vol. 10) Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
Tuller, B., &Fowler, C. A. (1980). Some articulatory correlates of perceptual isochrony.Perception & Psychophysics,27, 277–283
Vos, J., &Rasch, R. (1981). The perceptual onset of musical tones.Perception & Psychophysics,29, 323–335
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This research was supported by NIH Grant HD 16591, NIH Grant HD 01994, and NSF Grant BNS 8111470 to Haskins Laboratories. C. Fowler is in the Department of Psychology at Dartmouth College.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cooper, A.M., Whalen, D.H. & Fowler, C.A. P-centers are unaffected by phonetic categorization. Perception & Psychophysics 39, 187–196 (1986). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03212490
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03212490