Identification of Consonants from Formant Transitions Presented Forward and Backward

The effect of coarticulation on perception was studied by asking 18 subjects to identify the place of articulation of stop and fricative consonants from CV and VC vowel transitions played forward and backward. The factors investigated were: (A) transition direction, forward and backward; (B) transition position, CV and VC; (C) manner of production; (D) mode of production; and (E) place of production. The results indicate that: (1) with the exception of voiceless stops identified from forward CV transitions, consonants were identified considerably better than chance from CV and VC vowel transitions, (2) more correct identifications of consonants were made from VC transitions than from CV transitions in both the forward and backward play conditions, (3) backward play CV transitions produced much higher identification scores than those played forward, and (4) backward play VC transitions produced slightly lower identification scores than those played forward. These findings support the conclusion that VC transitions are more sufficient cues than CV transitions and that listeners derive more information from transitions when they are pre-consonantal than when they are post-consonantal.