1. Speech Perception (acoustic cues)
Speech Science XII
Speech Perception
(acoustic cues)

2. Topics Psychoacoustics Psychophonetics – acoustic cues
Reading: BHR, chap. 6, P.-M., and , first part pp

3. Psychoacoustics 1
Psychoacoustics investigates the relationship between basic signal properties and basic auditory impressions:
- How loud something sounds.
- How high- or low-pitched something sounds.
- How long somethings sounds.
- What the timbre (quality) of a sound is.
The questions asked are:
- Can the signal be heard? (signal strength)
- Can differences between signals be heard? (for all signal properties)

4. Psychoacoustics 2
Important: Psychoacoustics relates the objective, measurable signal to subjective impressions.
These are two different “worlds”
The simplest “model” of psychoacoustic perception would be a linear relationship:
- A change in a signal parameter always has an equivalent change in the auditory impression.
• This not the case
(which makes psychoacoustics very complex ….)
• Some of the non-linearity has direct implications for phonetic understanding…..

5. A non-linear relationship: Loudness
Signal strength
inside ear
Signal strength outside ear

6. The reason for non-linear loudness
Resonance characteristics of the outer ear

7. Non-linearity above threshold
Phon = dB at 1kHz
So, e.g.: 80 Phons = 80 dB at 1 kHz but approx. 100 dB at 50 Hz.& 70 dB at 3.5 kHz

8. Also, sounds mask one another
If noise is present,
a tone has to be
stronger to be heard (it has a higher audibility threshold).
The closer the tone
is in frequency to the centre frequency of the noise, the
stronger it has to be
to be heard!

9. “Critical Bands” (Barks & Erbs)
Wide-band noise with a gap still masks a tone in the middle of the gap
… until the gap reaches a critical width.
no masking
Then the signal is heard at the same threshold as if there were no noise.
strong masking
The noise no longer interferes with the part of the hearing mechanism dealing with the tone.
These “critical bands” are narrow at low and broader at higher frequencies.

10. Non-linearity of loudness with duration
Above approx 300 ms (exact duration not certain) the perceived loudness of a sound is determined by signal strength (and frequency) independent of its duration.
Below this duration, a shorter sound is heard as less loud than a longer sound of equal intensity.
I.e., it is as if the energy is integrated over time, so that a shorter sound has less energy than a longer one.
• Phonetic importance? Short (unstressed) syllables are perceptually less prominent than longer (stressed) syllables.

11. Psychophonetics

12. Psychophonetics
• Used as a term to parallel “psychoacoustics”, in out definition, psychophonetics is the study of the relationship between the acoustic speech signal and functional aspects of speech – e.g., speech sounds, (stressed/unstressed) syllables, tonal accents, junctural phenomena etc.
• The experimental procedure typically requires changing the analytic properties of the acoustic speech signal in a controlled manner and recording the perceptual effect.
• The properties changed are those of acoustic analysis: duration, intensity, fundamental frequency and spectral structure.

13. Acoustic cues – vowels 1
• Cues: Formants 1 and 2 (to a first approximation)
…. and the evidence from formant synthesis:
front vowels higher F2
rounded vowels lower F2
open vowels higher F1

14. Acoustic cues - vowels 2
• While monophthongs have a steady state formant structure, diphthongs – e.g. [aI, aU, I] – and (vowel glide) approximants – e.g. [j, w, ] – depend on changing formants to signal their identity.
• [aI, aU, I] have a more or less fixed formant pattern, determined by the identity two vocalic elements which define them.
• [j, w, ] have a defined starting point, but the degree of formant change is determined by the following vowel. The starting point has a (slightly more damped) formant structure similar to the related vowel: [j]  [i]; [w]  [u]; []  [y] (see acoustics slides)

15. Acoustic cues – plosives
• Plosives have a temporally complex set of acoustic cues resulting from the closing movement, the closure phase and the release of the closure.
• The closure is a period with no energy (voiceless stops) or a weak low frequency periodic signal (voicing in the closure). This introduces a perceptible interruption.
• The release burst is the result of turbulence due to the escaping air from the increased intra-oral pressure built up during the closure. This may be relatively weak (in voiced stops) or strong (in voiceless stops). The different spectral properties of the burst noise signal the different places of articulation.

16. Release bursts and vowel quality

17. Vowel formant transitions as consonant cues
• Formant transitions (changing formant values in the vowel preceding and following the stop consonant) reflect the articulator movement towards and away from the closure. The F2 transition is a cue to the consonantal place of articulation; F1 just signals the opening and closing movement.
• The place of the stop determines the F2 formant value from which or towards which the transition moves (called the locus). But the actual shape of the transition is determined by the vowel (as it is with vowel glides).

18. Locus frequencies – e.g. [d]

19. What sort of transitions for which place?
• The previous slide showed that the locus for [d] (and – logically – for [t, n, l, s, z]) is fairly constant. The value (for the average adult male vocal tract) is about 1800 Hz.
• For labial consonants, the vowel can be formed independent of the consonant closure (the tongue is free to move). Both F2 and F1 therefore just reflect the opening and closing of the jaw and lips. The “locus” is therefore always low.
• For velar consonants, the consonant closure is very dependent on the vowel (both use the tongue dorsum). The locus is higher than for alveolars both for front and back vowels, but for back vowels it is lower than for front vowels. F2 and F3 transitions often converge with velars.

21. The importance of timing as a cue to the „voicing“ distinction
The temporal differences shown here signal the difference between „weak“ and „strong“ plosives, whether there is closure voicing present or not. It is often claimed that the distinction “fortis-lenis” is
better than “voiced-voiceless”

22. Acoustic cues - fricatives
• Fricative identity is determined by the spectral distribution of the energy (see also acoustics slides).
[D]
[T]
[v]
[f]
[Z]
[S]
[z]
[s]

23. Summary of cues - Manner

24. Summary of cues - Place

25. Summary of cues: Fortis-lenis
voice bar
Summary of cues: Fortis-lenis