ASA 128th Meeting - Austin, Texas - 1994 Nov 28 .. Dec 02

3aSP8. Formant discrimination in femalelike vowels as a function of F[sub 1]-F[sub 0] Bark distance.

Dennis L. Hughes

Randy L. Diehl

Dept. of Psychol., Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX 78712

Hughes and Diehl [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 95, 2978(A) (1994)] reported that discrimination of first formant frequency for both single and multiple formant stimuli was strongly influenced by both a formant/harmonic interaction and F[sub 1]-F[sub 0] Bark distance. No evidence for a peak in discriminability near F[sub 1]-F[sub 0]=3.0--3.5 Bark was observed, however. The current study extended these findings to stimuli more characteristic of female talkers. Listeners performed a formant discrimination task on one of five series of four-formant stimuli varying in F[sub 1]-F[sub 0] distance. F[sub 1] ranged from 3.2 to 7.7 Bark within a series, and F[sub 0] from 1.75 to 2.75 Bark between series. Preliminary results confirm both the strength of the formant/harmonic interaction and the lack of a peak in discriminability at F[sub 1]-F[sub 0]=3.0--3.5 Bark. Results also point up the need for a more adequate characterization of how formant frequency is represented in the auditory system. [Work supported by NIDCD.]