Intonational Structure Influences Perception of Contrastive Vowel Length: The Case of Phrase-Final Lengthening in Tokyo Japanese

2020 ◽  
pp. 002383092097184
Author(s):  
Jeremy Steffman ◽  
Hironori Katsuda
Keyword(s):  
Target Word ◽  
Speech Signal ◽  
Choice Task ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Vowel Length ◽  
Target Sound ◽  
Tokyo Japanese ◽  
Forced Choice Task ◽  
Prosodic Boundary

Recent research has proposed that listeners use prosodic information to guide their processing of phonemic contrasts. Given that prosodic organization of the speech signal systematically modulates durational patterns (e.g., accentual lengthening and phrase-final (PF) lengthening), listeners’ perception of durational contrasts has been argued to be influenced by prosodic factors. For example, given that sounds are generally lengthened preceding a prosodic boundary, listeners may adjust their perception of durational cues accordingly, effectively compensating for prosodically-driven temporal patterns. In the present study we present two experiments designed to test the importance of pitch-based cues to prosodic structure for listeners’ perception of contrastive vowel length (CVL) in Tokyo Japanese along these lines. We tested if, when a target sound is cued as being PF, listeners compensatorily adjust categorization of vowel duration, in accordance with PF lengthening. Both experiments were a two-alternative forced choice task in which listeners categorized a vowel duration continuum as a phonemically short or long vowel. We manipulated only pitch surrounding the target sound in a carrier phrase to cue it as intonational phrase final, or accentual phrase medial. In Experiment 1 we tested perception of an accented target word, and in Experiment 2 we tested perception of an unaccented target word. In both experiments, we found that contextual changes in pitch influenced listeners’ perception of CVL, in accordance with their function as signaling intonational structure. Results therefore suggest that listeners use tonal information to compute prosodic structure and bring this to bear on their perception of durational contrasts in speech.

scholarly journals Prosodic Structure Shapes the Temporal Realization of Intonation and Manual Gesture Movements

2013 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 850-864 ◽  
Author(s):  
Núria Esteve-Gibert ◽  
Pilar Prieto
Keyword(s):  
Target Word ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Prosodic Phrasing ◽  
Temporal Coordination ◽  
Contrastive Focus ◽  
Focus Condition ◽  
Manual Gesture ◽  
Prosodic Boundary ◽  
Pointing Gesture

Purpose Previous work on the temporal coordination between gesture and speech found that the prominence in gesture coordinates with speech prominence. In this study, the authors investigated the anchoring regions in speech and pointing gesture that align with each other. The authors hypothesized that (a) in contrastive focus conditions, the gesture apex is anchored in the intonation peak and (b) the upcoming prosodic boundary influences the timing of gesture and intonation movements. Method Fifteen Catalan speakers pointed at a screen while pronouncing a target word with different metrical patterns in a contrastive focus condition and followed by a phrase boundary. A total of 702 co-speech deictic gestures were acoustically and gesturally analyzed. Results Intonation peaks and gesture apexes showed parallel behavior with respect to their position within the accented syllable: They occurred at the end of the accented syllable in non–phrase-final position, whereas they occurred well before the end of the accented syllable in phrase-final position. Crucially, the position of intonation peaks and gesture apexes was correlated and was bound by prosodic structure. Conclusions The results refine the phonological synchronization rule (McNeill, 1992), showing that gesture apexes are anchored in intonation peaks and that gesture and prosodic movements are bound by prosodic phrasing.

scholarly journals Delayed processing in accented speech: Evidence from a mouse-tracking experiment

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Page Elizabeth Piccinini ◽  
Alejandrina Cristia
Keyword(s):  
Target Word ◽  
Optimal Strategy ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Prior Experience ◽  
Choice Task ◽  
Mouse Tracking ◽  
Accented Speech ◽  
Accent Perception ◽  
Forced Choice Task ◽  
Main Effects

Previous work shows that listeners use the phonetic signal to predict upcoming information, including adaptation to accent-specific phonological structures. This study assesses whether this response is optimal by studying the time course and specificity of adaptation as native French listeners are presented with English-accented French samples in a cross-modal two-alternative forced choice task. There were four types of trials, depending on whether the spoken target word contained a sound replaced in English-accented speech with a different phoneme; and whether this pronunciation rendered the choice temporarily ambiguous or not. If listeners follow an optimal strategy, one predicts an interaction between both terms, with slower responses for words with replaced phonemes only when the replacement rendered the target temporarily ambiguous. Instead, we found main effects of both factors. Thus, it appears that adult listeners did not adopt the strategy that would have been informationally optimal. This result could be due to prior experience with the accent employed, and specific difficulties with replaced phonemes, despite knowledge of the accent. We discuss results in the broader context of accent perception research, bearing on the (speaker- and contrast-)specificity of listener adaptation as well as the variability in results potentially due to the task, accent, and materials employed.

scholarly journals Prosody-segment Interactions in the Acoustics of Polish Front Vowels

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 151-175
Author(s):  
Ewelina Wojtkowiak
Keyword(s):  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Acoustic Study ◽  
Prosodic Boundary

This paper presents an acoustic study devised to investigate the effects of three presumably distinct prosodic position on the phonetic realisation of Polish front vowels in #CV (that is, following a prosodic boundary and a consonantal onset) and #VC sequences (that is, immediately following a prosodic boundary). The results of the experiment suggest that Polish does not seem to distinguish between utterance-initial and phrase-initial positions, with some contrasts present between these two positions and phrase-medial tokens with respect to F1. No effects of position have been found for F2 or vowel duration. There are also no clear differences on the acoustic realisation of vowels depending on whether or not they are adjacent to the prosodic boundary. These results raise questions about the nature of prosodic structure in Polish as compared to other languages which show more robust effects.

scholarly journals Listeners integrate pitch and durational cues to prosodic structure in word categorization

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Jeremy Steffman ◽  
Sun-Ah Jun
Keyword(s):  
Target Word ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Pitch Height ◽  
Step Size ◽  
2Afc Task ◽  
Word Categorization ◽  
The Right

In this study we investigate how listeners perceive vowel duration as a cue to voicing based on changes in pitch height, using a 2AFC task in which they categorized a target word from a vowel duration continuum as “coat” or “code”. We consider this issue in light of (1) psychoacoustic perceptual interactions between pitch and duration and (2) compensatory effects for prosodically driven patterning of pitch and duration in the accentual/prominence-marking system of English. In two experiments we found that listeners’ interpretation of pitch as a psychoacoustic, or prosodic event is dependent on continuum step size and range. In Experiment 1 listeners exemplified the expected psychoacoustic pattern in categorization. In Experiment 2, we altered the duration continuum in an attempt to highlight pitch as a language-specific prosodic property and found that listeners do indeed compensate for prosodically driven patterning of pitch and duration. The results thus highlight flexibility in listeners’ interpretation of these acoustic dimensions. We argue that, in the right circumstances, prosodic patterns influence listeners’ interpretation of pitch and expectations about vowel duration in the perception of isolated words. Results are discussed in terms of more general implications for listeners’ perception of prosodic and segmental cues, and possibilities for cross-linguistic extension.

Assessing the Link Between Perception and Production in Cantonese Tone Acquisition

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
pp. 1243-1257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peggy Pik Ki Mok ◽  
Holly Sze Ho Fung ◽  
Vivian Guo Li
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
General Principle ◽  
Choice Task ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Tone Pair ◽  
Tone Production ◽  
Monosyllabic Words ◽  
Early Production ◽  
Forced Choice Task ◽  
Production Accuracy

Purpose Previous studies showed early production precedes late perception in Cantonese tone acquisition, contrary to the general principle that perception precedes production in child language. How tone production and perception are linked in 1st language acquisition remains largely unknown. Our study revisited the acquisition of tone in Cantonese-speaking children, exploring the possible link between production and perception in 1st language acquisition. Method One hundred eleven Cantonese-speaking children aged between 2;0 and 6;0 (years;months) and 10 adolescent reference speakers participated in tone production and perception experiments. Production materials with 30 monosyllabic words were transcribed in filtered and unfiltered conditions by 2 native judges. Perception accuracy was based on a 2-alternative forced-choice task with pictures covering all possible tone pair contrasts. Results Children's accuracy of production and perception of all the 6 Cantonese tones was still not adultlike by age 6;0. Both production and perception accuracies matured with age. A weak positive link was found between the 2 accuracies. Mother's native language contributed to children's production accuracy. Conclusions Our findings show that production and perception abilities are associated in tone acquisition. Further study is needed to explore factors affecting production accuracy in children. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.7960826

Habit learning in a forced-choice task

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Dressel ◽  
Teena D. Moody ◽  
Barbara J. Knowlton
Keyword(s):  
Forced Choice ◽  
Choice Task ◽  
Habit Learning ◽  
Forced Choice Task

scholarly journals Biological Bases of Beauty Revisited: The Effect of Symmetry, Averageness, and Sexual Dimorphism on Female Facial Attractiveness

Symmetry ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex L. Jones ◽  
Bastian Jaeger
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Dimorphism ◽  
Learning Algorithm ◽  
Facial Attractiveness ◽  
Choice Task ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Human Female ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
Skin Texture ◽  
Femininity And Masculinity ◽  
Forced Choice Task

The factors influencing human female facial attractiveness—symmetry, averageness, and sexual dimorphism—have been extensively studied. However, recent studies, using improved methodologies, have called into question their evolutionary utility and links with life history. The current studies use a range of approaches to quantify how important these factors actually are in perceiving attractiveness, through the use of novel statistical analyses and by addressing methodological weaknesses in the literature. Study One examines how manipulations of symmetry, averageness, femininity, and masculinity affect attractiveness using a two-alternative forced choice task, finding that increased masculinity and also femininity decrease attractiveness, compared to unmanipulated faces. Symmetry and averageness yielded a small and large effect, respectively. Study Two utilises a naturalistic ratings paradigm, finding similar effects of averageness and masculinity as Study One but no effects of symmetry and femininity on attractiveness. Study Three applies geometric face measurements of the factors and a random forest machine learning algorithm to predict perceived attractiveness, finding that shape averageness, dimorphism, and skin texture symmetry are useful features capable of relatively accurate predictions, while shape symmetry is uninformative. However, the factors do not explain as much variance in attractiveness as the literature suggests. The implications for future research on attractiveness are discussed.

scholarly journals RNNs develop history biases in an expectation-guided two-alternative forced choice task

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Molano-Mazon ◽  
Guangyu Robert Yang ◽  
Ainhoa Hermoso-Mendizabal ◽  
Jaime de la Rocha
Keyword(s):  
Forced Choice ◽  
Choice Task ◽  
Forced Choice Task

scholarly journals Shared Vowels in English Loanwords in Arabic: Variation in Similarity-Based Adaptation

2022 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Acoustic Analysis ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Vowel Sound ◽  
Vowel Quality ◽  
Vowel Length ◽  
Arabic Speakers ◽  
Vowel Systems ◽  
Saudi Arabic ◽  
Vowel Height

This paper investigates vowel adaptation in English-based loanwords by a group of Saudi Arabic speakers, concentrating exclusively on shared vowels between the two languages. It examines 5 long vowels shared by the two vowel systems in terms of vowel quality and vowel duration in loanword productions by 22 participants and checks them against the properties of the same vowels in native words. To this end, the study performs an acoustic analysis of 660 tokens (loan and native vowel sounds) through Praat to measure the first two formants (F1: vowel height and F2: vowel advancement) of each vowel sound at two temporal points of time (T1: the vowel onset and T2: the peak of the vowel) as well as a durational analysis to examine vowel length. It reports that measurements of the first two formants of vowels in native words appear to be stable during the two temporal points while values of the same vowel sounds occurring in loanwords are fluctuating from T1 to T2 and that durational differences exist between loanword vowels in comparison with vowels of native words in such a way that vowels in native words are longer in duration than the same vowels appearing in loanwords.

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