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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This paper is based on a portion of a thesis submitted to the University of Michigan in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the PhD degree. I am very grateful to Dr. Franklin S. Cooper and Professor Alvin M. Liberman for making the unique facilities of Haskins Laboratories available to me for preparation of the stimulus materials and for their interest in this work. I am also indebted to Professor Irwin Pollack and Professor Michael Studdert-Kennedy for their help and advice. This research was supported in part by a grant from NICHD to Haskins Laboratories, an NSF grant to Irwin Pollack, and a Rackham Prize Fellowship from the Graduate School of the University of Michigan. A shorter version of this paper was presented at the meetings of the Acoustical Society of America, Denver, Colorado, October 1971.
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Pisoni, D.B. Auditory and phonetic memory codes in the discrimination of consonants and vowels. Perception & Psychophysics 13, 253–260 (1973). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03214136
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03214136