Intonational schemas, perceived grouping, and distortions of perceived duration

Perception of duration is known to be affected by a variety of contextual factors, including pitch. It has also long been observed that rhythmic grouping can affect perceived duration such that intervals between perceived groups are inflated in perception. Pitch and timing cues both play key roles in prosodic grouping. This paper explores the hypothesis that certain pitch-based distortions of time perception are in fact due to perceived grouping effects, and that such interactions can affect speech timing perception. A pair of perception experiments eliciting judgments of perceived grouping and perceived timing used the same set of stimuli, resynthesized with crossed continua of pitch and timing manipulations. Results support a correlation between perceived grouping and distortion of perceived duration of between-group silent intervals.