Effects of syllable duration on stop-glide identification in syllable-initial and syllable-final position by humans and monkeys

• Published in: Perception & psychophysics 1998-08, Vol.60 (6), p.1032-1043
• Main Authors: SINNOTT, J. M, BROWN, C. H, BORNEMAN, M. A
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Haplorhini - physiology; Humans; Language; Phonetics; Production and perception of spoken language; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Speech Discrimination Tests; Speech Perception - physiology; Time Factors
• ISSN: 0031-5117; 1532-5962
• DOI: 10.3758/BF03211937

Humans and monkeys were compared in their identification of phoneme boundaries along synthetic stop-glide continua in syllable-initial /bo/-/wa/ or syllable-final /bab/-/baw/ contrasts differing in overall syllable duration. For both contrasts, humans were first tested with a conventional written identification procedure. Here, similar phoneme boundaries emerged and shifted with increases in syllable duration toward longer transitions, as has previously been reported in the literature for syllable-initial data (Miller & Liberman, 1979). Humans and monkeys were then tested on these contrasts, using a go/no-go identification procedure specifically designed for monkeys. Here also, stop-glide boundaries emerged and shifted with increased syllable duration for both species, although monkey "boundaries" were at longer durations than humans' in syllable-final position. The results indicate that there are both gross similarities and subtle differences between humans and monkeys with regard to the stop-glide context effect. The results are discussed in relation to the hypothesis that general mammalian auditory mechanisms are responsible for this effect.