Auditory enhancement and spectral contrast effects in speech perceptiona

The auditory system is remarkably sensitive to changes in the acoustic environment. This is exemplified by two classic effects of preceding spectral context on perception. In auditory enhancement effects (EEs), the absence and subsequent insertion of a frequency component increases its salience. In spectral contrast effects (SCEs), spectral differences between earlier and later (target) sounds are perceptually magnified, biasing target sound categorization. These effects have been suggested to be related, but have largely been studied separately. Here, EEs and SCEs are demonstrated using the same speech materials. In Experiment 1, listeners categorized vowels (/ɪ/-/ɛ/) or consonants (/d/-/g/) following a sentence processed by a bandpass or bandstop filter (vowel tasks: 100–400 or 550–850 Hz; consonant tasks: 1700–2700 or 2700–3700 Hz). Bandpass filtering produced SCEs and bandstop filtering produced EEs, with effect magnitudes significantly correlated at the individual differences level. In Experiment 2, context sentences were processed by variable-depth notch filters in these frequency regions (−5 to −20 dB). EE magnitudes increased at larger notch depths, growing linearly in consonant categorization. This parallels previous research where SCEs increased linearly for larger spectral peaks in the context sentence. These results link EEs and SCEs, as both shape speech categorization in orderly ways.