ASA 125th Meeting Ottawa 1993 May

4pSP10. A developmental study of the perception of onset spectra for stop consonants in different vowel environments.

Div. of Hear. and Speech Sci., Box 552, Sta. 17, Vanderbilt Univ. School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37232

The purpose of this study was to assess the perceptual role of integration and dynamic time-varying spectral cues for stop consonants in children and adults. Stop-consonant syllables were synthesized in the context of two vowels, /i/, (open aye)/. These syllables were synthesized with and without bursts, and contained formant motions and/or formant onset frequencies appropriate for each stop-consonant place of articulation. In addition, syllable duration varied between 10 to 46 ms. Children at five age levels, 4, 5, 7, 9, and 11, and a control group of adults were trained to identify the consonant as either /b/, /d/, or /g/. Preliminary findings indicate that dynamic time-varying spectral changes are not essential for accurate identification of stop consonants across all contexts. The results also show that the integration of noise bursts and formant onset frequencies, and syllable duration improve identification of alveolar and velar stops, particularly for children. The findings will be discussed relative to: (1) the differences between children and adults in processing integration and dynamic time-varying spectral cues, and (2) the developmental role of stimulus duration in the perception of stop consonants. [Work supported by NIH, DC00464.]