Deparment of Linguistics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.
J Acoust Soc Am. 2020 Oct;148(4):1911. doi: 10.1121/10.0002110.
Although the first two or three formant frequencies are considered essential cues for vowel identification, certain limitations of this approach have been noted. Alternative explanations have suggested listeners rely on other aspects of the gross spectral shape. A study conducted by Ito, Tsuchida, and Yano [(2001). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 110, 1141-1149] offered strong support for the latter, as attenuation of individual formant peaks left vowel identification largely unaffected. In the present study, these experiments are replicated in two dialects of English. Although the results were similar to those of Ito, Tsuchida, and Yano [(2001). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 110, 1141-1149], quantitative analyses showed that when a formant is suppressed, participant response entropy increases due to increased listener uncertainty. In a subsequent experiment, using synthesized vowels with changing formant frequencies, suppressing individual formant peaks led to reliable changes in identification of certain vowels but not in others. These findings indicate that listeners can identify vowels with missing formant peaks. However, such formant-peak suppression may lead to decreased certainty in identification of steady-state vowels or even changes in vowel identification in certain dynamically specified vowels.
尽管前两个或三个共振峰频率被认为是元音识别的基本线索，但这种方法存在一定的局限性。其他解释表明，听众依赖于频谱整体形状的其他方面。Ito、Tsuchida 和 Yano（2001）进行的一项研究为后者提供了强有力的支持，因为单个共振峰的衰减对元音识别的影响不大。在本研究中，在两种英语方言中复制了这些实验。尽管结果与 Ito、Tsuchida 和 Yano（2001）的研究相似，但定量分析表明，当一个共振峰被抑制时，由于听众不确定性的增加，参与者的反应熵会增加。在随后的实验中，使用具有变化共振峰频率的合成元音，抑制单个共振峰会导致某些元音的识别发生可靠变化，但其他元音的识别不会发生变化。这些发现表明，听众可以识别缺少共振峰的元音。然而，这种共振峰抑制可能会导致稳态元音识别的确定性降低，甚至在某些动态指定的元音中导致元音识别的变化。
