Phoneme categorization relying solely on high-frequency energy

J Acoust Soc Am. 2015 Jan;137(1):EL65-70. doi: 10.1121/1.4903917.

Abstract

Speech perception studies generally focus on the acoustic information present in the frequency regions below 6 kHz. Recent evidence suggests that there is perceptually relevant information in the higher frequencies, including information affecting speech intelligibility. This experiment examined whether listeners are able to accurately identify a subset of vowels and consonants in CV-context when only high-frequency (above 5 kHz) acoustic information is available (through high-pass filtering and masking of lower frequency energy). The findings reveal that listeners are capable of extracting information from these higher frequency regions to accurately identify certain consonants and vowels.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Acoustic Stimulation
  • Adult
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Perceptual Masking / physiology
  • Phonetics*
  • Pitch Perception / physiology*
  • Speech Intelligibility / physiology*
  • Speech Perception
  • Young Adult