Mark S Hedrick1, Steven G Madix. 1. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, 578 South Stadium Hall, Knoxville, TN 37996-0740, USA. mhedric1@utk.edu
Abstract
PURPOSE: The purpose of the current study was to determine the effects of vowel identity and temporal onset asynchrony on identification of vowels overlapped in time. METHOD: Fourteen listeners with normal hearing, with a mean age of 24 years, participated. The listeners were asked to identify both of a pair of 200-ms vowels (referred to as double vowels) presented either simultaneously or with a temporal asynchrony ranging from 25 ms to 150 ms in 25-ms steps. The stimuli were synthetic steady-state vowels /i ae u / arranged in seven combinations: /u i/, /ae /, / /, / ae/, /ae i/, / i/, and / u/. RESULTS: Listeners' responses revealed that one vowel of a pair was identified correctly more often than the other vowel (known as vowel dominance). Vowel dominance effects were seen for 6 of the 7 vowel pairs, and there was improvement of vowel identification with increasing temporal separation between vowels for 5 of the 7 pairs. Vowel pairs with the vowel // consistently yielded improved identification with increases in temporal asynchrony. DISCUSSION: Peripheral masking cannot explain the patterns of results of this study. A more parsimonious explanation may be perceptual anchoring.
PURPOSE: The purpose of the current study was to determine the effects of vowel identity and temporal onset asynchrony on identification of vowels overlapped in time. METHOD: Fourteen listeners with normal hearing, with a mean age of 24 years, participated. The listeners were asked to identify both of a pair of 200-ms vowels (referred to as double vowels) presented either simultaneously or with a temporal asynchrony ranging from 25 ms to 150 ms in 25-ms steps. The stimuli were synthetic steady-state vowels /i ae u / arranged in seven combinations: /u i/, /ae /, / /, / ae/, /ae i/, / i/, and / u/. RESULTS: Listeners' responses revealed that one vowel of a pair was identified correctly more often than the other vowel (known as vowel dominance). Vowel dominance effects were seen for 6 of the 7 vowel pairs, and there was improvement of vowel identification with increasing temporal separation between vowels for 5 of the 7 pairs. Vowel pairs with the vowel // consistently yielded improved identification with increases in temporal asynchrony. DISCUSSION: Peripheral masking cannot explain the patterns of results of this study. A more parsimonious explanation may be perceptual anchoring.