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. 1973 Jun 1;13(2):253-260.
doi: 10.3758/BF03214136.

Auditory and phonetic memory codes in the discrimination of consonants and vowels

David B Pisoni  1
Affiliations

Auditory and phonetic memory codes in the discrimination of consonants and vowels

David B Pisoni. Percept Psychophys. .

Abstract

Recognition memory for consonants and vowels selected from within and between phonetic categories was examined in a delayed comparison discrimination task. Accuracy of discrimination for synthetic vowels selected from both within and between categories was inversely related to the magnitude of the comparison interval. In contrast, discrimination of synthetic stop consonants remained relatively stable both within and between categories. The results indicate that differences in discrimination between consonants and vowels are primarily due to the differential availability of auditory short-term memory for the acoustic cues distinguishing these two classes of speech sounds. The findings provide evidence for distinct auditory and phonetic memory codes in speech perception.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Average identification functions for each of the four stimulus conditions, with discrimination functions averaged over all delay intervals superimposed on the corresponding identification functions.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Average probability of a “different” response when the stimuli within a pair were different [P(“D” | D)] as a function of delay interval for each stimulus condition for within and between phonetic categories.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Average d′ scores for within- and between-category comparisons as a function of delay interval for each stimulus condition.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    1. Fujisaki H, Kawashima T. Annual Report of the Engineering Research Institute. Vol. 29. Faculty of Engineering, University of Tokyo; Tokyo: 1970. Some experiments on speech perception and a model for the perceptual mechanism; pp. 207–214.

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