Perceptual normalization for speaking rate. II: Effects of signal discontinuities.

In a series of experiments, we examined how rate normalization in speech perception is influenced by segments that occur after the target. Perception of the syllable-initial target was influenced by the durations of both the adjacent vowel and the segment after the vowel, even when the identity of the talker was changed during the syllable. These results, together with earlier findings of a temporal window that follows a target phoneme within which segment duration influences perception of the target, help to resolve apparently conflicting results that have been reported previously. Overall, the results fit within a theoretical framework in which the rate at which events take place is extracted early in processing, prior to segregating voices, and the use of this information is obligatory in subsequent processing.