Phonetic and Auditory Trading Relations between Acoustic Cues in Speech Perception : Preliminary Results

When two different acoustic cues contribute to the perception of a phonetic distinction, a trading relation between the cues can be demonstrated if the speech stimuli are phonetically ambiguous. Do the cues trade also in unambiguous stimuli? Four different trading relations were examined using a fixed-standard AX discrimination task wi th stimuli either from the vicinity of the phonetic category boundary or from within a phonetic category. The results suggest that certain trading relations (presumably of auditory origin) hold in both conditions while others are tied to the perception of phonetic contrasts and thus appear to be specific to the speech mode.