Abstract:
Humans and monkeys were compared in their perception of phoneme boundary shifts along two synthetic stop-glide /b(alpha)-w(alpha)/ continua differing in overall syllable duration (150 vs 320 ms). Humans were first tested with a written identification procedure and showed a boundary shift to longer transition durations with increased syllable duration, as previously reported in the literature. Humans and monkeys were then tested with a low-uncertainty discrimination procedure but showed little evidence of a sensory-level discontinuity underlying the identified boundaries: Instead sensitivity tended to follow Weber's law. Finally, both humans and monkeys were tested with a go/no-go identification procedure specifically designed for monkeys. Similar stop-glide boundaries emerged and shifted with increased syllable duration for both species, indicating that monkeys make good models of human stop-glide sensitivity in identification procedures that involve higher level attentional and memorial processes. [Work supported by NIDCD.]