Perceptual compensation for vowel intrinsic f0 effects in native English speakers

Abstract

High vowels have higher f0 than low vowels, creating a context effect on the interpretation of f0. Since onset F0 is a cue to stop voicing, the vowel context is expected to influence voicing judgements. Listeners categorized syllables starting with high (“bee”-“pea”) and low (“bye”-“pie”) vowels varying orthogonally in VOT and onset F0. Listeners made use of both cues as expected. Furthermore, vowel height affected listeners' categorization. Syllables with the low vowel /a/ elicited more voiceless responses compared to syllables with the high vowel /i/. This suggests that listeners compensate for vowel intrinsic effects when making other phonemic judgements.