The role of formant amplitude in the perception of /i/ and /u/ in normal hearing listeners

Authors

  • Lacey Marshall School of Human Communication Disorders, Dalhousie University, 5599 Fenwick Street, Halifax, NS B3H 1R2, Canada
  • Teresa Enright School of Human Communication Disorders, Dalhousie University, 5599 Fenwick Street, Halifax, NS B3H 1R2, Canada
  • Michael Kiefte School of Human Communication Disorders, Dalhousie University, 5599 Fenwick Street, Halifax, NS B3H 1R2, Canada

Keywords:

Amplitude modulation, Harmonic analysis, Sensory perception, Spectrum analysis, Text processing, Formant amplitude, Full-spectrum stimuli, Spectral contrast, Synthetic monophthongs

Abstract

The effect of formant amplitude in the perception of vowels for speakers of English in normal hearing, was investigated. Two sets of stimuli including full-spectrum stimuli and incomplete-spectrum stimuli consisted of harmonics at the center of the first five formants were used to determine the perception of /i/ and /u/ in normal hearing. Participants were subjected a forced-choice vowel identification task with two sets of stimuli varied in amplitude of F 2 and F3 in a fully-crossed 7×7 design and identified each stimulus 8 times. It was observed that there were a greater number of /i/ responses in the full-spectrum condition due to reduced spectral contrast while there were more /u/ responses in the incomplete-spectrum condition due to the ability of listeners to perceive F2 at very low amplitudes. Result shows that formant amplitude influence vowel perception in synthetic monophthongs.

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Published

2006-09-01

How to Cite

1.
Marshall L, Enright T, Kiefte M. The role of formant amplitude in the perception of /i/ and /u/ in normal hearing listeners. Canadian Acoustics [Internet]. 2006 Sep. 1 [cited 2023 Sep. 21];34(3):108-9. Available from: https://jcaa.caa-aca.ca/index.php/jcaa/article/view/1845

Issue

Vol. 34 No. 3 (2006)

Section

Proceedings of the Acoustics Week in Canada

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