Intrinsic cues and vowel categorical perception

Abstract

The present study aims to compare the influence of inherent vowel formants with steady－state property (monophthong) and dynamic property (diphthong) on the CP of Mandarin vowels. Utilizing a classic paradigm of CP, three types of stimuli along the vowel continuum were synthesized, including monophthong－to－monophthong and diphthong－to－monophthong continuum. The perceptual results indicated that the degree of CP was much higher for the diphthongtomonophthong continuum (/ai/－/a/ and /ia/－/a/) compared with the monophthong－to－monophthong continuum /i/－/a/. We suggest that it was the relative direction changes of internal formants that promoted the degree of CP of vowels. Furthermore, we put forward some quantitative indexes to objectively evaluate the degree of CP in both behavioral and electrophysiological studies. 為了探討元音內部的固有共振峰信息對元音感知的影響,文章采用范疇感知研究范式中的辨認和區分測試,考察普通話母語者對于普通話單元音之間（/i/-/a/）、前響雙元音和單元音之間（/ai/-/a/）以及后響雙元音和單元音之間（/ia/-/a/）的刺激連續統感知情況。結果表明:當不同元音之間（單元音與單元音）內部的共振峰曲線在走向上處于相對穩態時,其感知的范疇化程度較低;相反,當不同元音之間（復合元音與單元音）內部的共振峰曲線在走向上存在著相對動態變化時,其感知的范疇化程度則會顯著提高。結合文獻中有關其他音位范疇化感知的現有研究,文章還進一步總結了影響音位感知范疇化程度的多種內部和外部因素,并提出了在行為學和腦電研究中衡量音位感知范疇化程度高低的客觀量化指標。