AN EXPERIMENT ON THE PERCEPTION OF INTONATIONAL FEATURES
Date
1976-08-01
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier
Abstract
An experiment was run in which listeners heard pairs of
nonsense words exhibiting the same segmental structure, but differing in the form of
pitch variation imposed. In each pair, the first word bore a pitch
rise over 100 msecs superimposed upon a generally declining pitch
frequency, while the second word carried a similar variation, but
with the rise occurring later. Listeners made a forced choice response
of "SAME" or "DIFFERENT". The null hypothesis, that listeners' ability
to discriminate pairs as different would be independent of the mean
position of the pitch rises, was rejected with great confidence and,
subject to several caveats, the conclusion was drawn that position of
ptich rise, under the conditions of the experiment, was perceived
categorically, one category being early in the syllable and the other
late. There was some evidence for the existence of two further
catagories.
The generalization and extension of the work will provide a continuing
challenge.
Description
Keywords
Computer Science
Citation
Hill, D.R. & Reid, N.A. (1977) "An experiment on the perception of intonational features." (Research Report 76/6/6.) International Journal of Man-Machine Studies 9(2) 337-347.