In:
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Acoustical Society of America (ASA), Vol. 117, No. 4_Supplement ( 2005-04-01), p. 2571-2571
Abstract:
Polka and Bohn [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 100, 557–592 (1996)] report that human infants perceive certain vowels asymmetrically when tested with a repeating-background category-change operant headturn procedure. Specifically, discrimination is easier when the background is a more central vowel (e.g. /y/) and the target is a more peripheral vowel (e.g. /u/), compared to the opposite condition. We are testing human (adult native English listeners) and monkey discrimination of the German vowel pair /dut-dyt/, using both synthetic and natural stimuli (obtained from Polka and Bohn), and a within-subject design. So far, no significant asymmetries have emerged in the data using a percent correct measure. We will also report preliminary data from gerbils being trained in a between-subject design more comparable to that used with human infants. Plans are to continue testing all species until they reach asymptotic performance levels in order to determine if an RT measure will indicate vowel asymmetries. A video will be shown of humans, monkeys and gerbils working on the experiments.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0001-4966
,
1520-8524
Language:
English
Publisher:
Acoustical Society of America (ASA)
Publication Date:
2005
detail.hit.zdb_id:
1461063-2
