Speech

Question 1

speech spectrograms

Answer 1

x axis- time, y-axis- frequency, shows intensity of speech signals (warm- strong, cool- weak)
there are strong signals for certain frequencies

Question 2

What is the basic perceptual unit of sound?

Answer 2

phoneme; if changed, changes meaning; depends on speech apparatus

Question 3

producing vowels

Answer 3

open vocal tract; vocal chords vibrating; subtle changes in jaw, lip and tongue (filtering function)

Question 4

What is the filtering function?

Answer 4

accentuates or attenuates frequencies (resonance) –> clear peaks/formants

Question 5

Position of formants _____ for each vowel

Answer 5

unique, esp. F1 and F2

Question 6

producing consonants

Answer 6

constriction of vocal tract; ramp up/down to accomadate for vowel sound

Question 7

coarticulation

Answer 7

“leftover” shape from last phoneme and preparation for upcoming phoneme; affected by preceding/trailing vowel

Question 8

ex of coarticulation: eebah vs oobah

Answer 8

completely diff formant transitions even though they’re the same phoneme

Question 9

how is coarticulation solved?

Answer 9

experience of language (probabilistic); context

Question 10

what kinds of variability are there?

Answer 10

within-speaker(mood; pace of speaking), between- speaker (accents, age)

Question 11

all of this variability leads to…

Answer 11

diff physical stimulus

Question 12

What is categorical perception?

Answer 12

categorizing phonemes but ignoring subtleties (dependent on language)

Question 13

An example of categorical perception?

Answer 13

VOT (voice onset time) – lag in release of air to voicing (ex: b vs p sound)

Question 14

VOT shows what kind of function

Answer 14

step function; abruptly changes from one phoneme to the other; small changes ignored

Question 15

motor theory

Answer 15

motor explicitly links perception to production of sound–> the ability to produce speech and speech apparatus are required, states that speech utilizes particular mechanisms

Question 16

auditory theory

Answer 16

speech is not special, it’s processed like any other sound; it’s simply an expertise of particular frequencies of sound and the rhythm

Question 17

evidence against motor theory

Answer 17

categorical speech perception is not exclusive to speech, but also facial expressions AND the ability to produce sound is not required (ex: chinchillas convey ability to perceive VOT)