Spectral Integration in Vowel Perception: Matching and Discrimination Studies

An examination of the spectral integration of formants in vowel perception reports three experiments testing the hypothesis that the "center of gravity" effect (if the relative amplitudes of two closely spaced formants are changed, the formant frequency of the best matched one-formant vowel will change) is caused by spectral integration. Experiment 1 was a matching study in which Ss (N = 5) adjusted the frequency & bandwidth of the formant in a one-formant stimulus until two stimuli sounded as similar as possible. Experiment 2 (N = 6) tested the effect of changing the bandwidth of the formant frequency in a matching experiment. Experiment 3 (N = 4) further investigated the possibility of spectral integration using a simple discrimination task. Evidence was found to support the spectral integration hypothesis. Figures, References. B. Annesser Murray