1991 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Characteristic of Speech Perception by Infant
| Project/Area Number |
02610038
|
|---|
| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
|
| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
|---|
| Research Field |
Psychology
|
|---|
| Research Institution | Tokyo Gakugei University |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
DEGUCHI Tosisada Tokyo Gakugei University, Faculty of Education, Assistant Professor, 教育学部, 助教授 (50143623)
|
|---|
| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
SAMESHIMA Munehiro Tokyo Gakugei University, Faculty of Education, Professor, 教育学部, 教授 (80015437)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
1990 – 1991
|
| Keywords | Speech Perception / Normalization / Formant / Vocal Size / Fundamental Frequency / Infant / Head-Turn Response / Vowel Boundary |
|---|
| Research Abstract |
Speech perception by human adults exhibits remarkable ability to perceptual normalize wide variations In the acoustic characteristics of given phonemes in natural utterances. One of the most dominant and systematic factors contributing to variations due to speaker difference is the effect of vocal size. It is well known that in adults speech perception, the fundamental frequency and the higher formant frequencies contribute to the perceptual normalization of vowel formants. The present study aims at Investigating whether this perceptual normalization already exists infant auditory perception.
A series of vowels which varied from /o/ to /a/ and /u/ to /e/ were synthesized by changing tile first and second formant frequencies. Each series of vowel was synthesized using two different fundamental frequencies (F0=100Hz, 220Hz). For a giveri F0, the frequencies of the higher formants were varied concurrently.
Perceptual experiments have been conducted with infants using the technique of conditioned head-turn responses to measure the effect of changes In the fundamental frequency and the higher formant frequencies on the vowel boundaries.
Up to now, we have succeeded in obtaining response patterns from 10 infants. Eight infants out of ten showed effects similar to those of adults. Namely, boundary formant frequencies become higher with a higher fundamental frequency. These results suggest the possibility of the perceptual normalization of vocal tract size in prelinguistic Infants.
|
