The Relative Amplitude of Vowel Formants

超出提供的空间。这项研究的长期目标是表征语音片段的相对强度在较大韵律域(如单词)内的元音和辅音的听觉加工中的作用。强度在语音加工中的作用还没有得到系统的研究，其确切的贡献也是未知的。本研究以元音为研究对象，研究元音共振峰的相对幅度，以此作为区分音素的线索。两个具体的目标是：1)研究在产生特定的共振峰和孤立元音的过程中，共振峰相对幅度的声学模式；2)研究共振峰水平的操纵对听者对元音质量和单词可理解性的判断的听觉影响。这项拟议的声学研究是House&Fairbank(1953)关于元音强度的早期工作的扩展，达到了共振峰水平(F1、F2、F3、F4)。它的目标是确定元音强度是否以及如何在共振峰水平上分布，以及这种分布是否随着辅音语境的变化而变化。这项拟议的知觉研究从孤立元音和单词语境中的元音共振峰的相对幅度来考察听者对变化的反应。实验数据表明，共振峰的强度是元音分类的一个线索。24名受试者将被用来进一步测试一组美式英语元音中的共振峰水平模式。这些模式的声学和知觉相关性旨在提供基本的理解，即当时间和语境因素减少自然语音中元音线索的处理时间时，元音线索是如何整合到单个知觉中的。由于声音强度的动态范围已被证明对助听器的性能有戏剧性的影响，而且大约一半65岁以上的美国人可能是扩音器的候选者，这项研究对这些人的医疗保健质量有影响。表演网站========================================Section End===========================================

EXCEED THE SPACE PROVIDED. The long-term objective of this research is to characterize the role of relative intensity of speech segments in the auditory processing of vowels and consonants within larger prosodic domains such as words. The role of intensity in speech processing has not been explored in a systematic way and its exact contribution is unknown. This proposal focuses on vowels and investigates the relative amplitude of vowel formants as a cue to making phonemic distinctions. Two specific aims are 1) to examine the acoustic pattern of the relative amplitude of formants in the production of selected coarticulated and isolated vowels, and 2) to examine the auditory effect of manipulation of formant levels on listeners' decision about vowel quality and intelligibility of words. The proposed acoustic study is an extension of an early work on vowel intensity by House & Fairbanks (1953) to formant levels (F1, F2, F3, F4). Its goal is to establish whether and how vowel intensity is distributed over formant levels and whether this distribution varies with consonantal context. The proposed perception study investigates listeners' response to ichanges in the relative amplitude of formants for isolated vowels and for vowels in word context. Pilot idata show that intensity of formants is a cue to vowel categorization. 24 subjects will be used to further Itest the patterns of formant levels in a larger set of American English vowels. The acoustic and iperceptual relevance of these patterns aims to provide basic understanding about the way the vowel cues are integrated in a single percept when temporal and contextual factors reduce time for their processing in natural speech. Since the dynamic range in the intensity of sounds has been shown to have a dramatic effect on hearing aid performance, and since around one half of the Americans over the age of 65 may be candidates for amplification this research has implications for the quality of health care for these individuals. PERFORMANCE SITE ========================================Section End===========================================