Asymmetric dependencies in processing phonetic features

A series of four experiments investigated the nature of the dependency relation that exists during the processing of the phonetic features of place and manner of articulation. A speeded classification paradigm was used in which listeners’ classification times along these two dimensions were measured under three conditions of variation along the nontarget dimension: (1) no variation, (2) correlated variation, and (3) orthogonal variation. In all four studies, a mutual but asymmetric pattern of interference was found in the orthogonal conditions, in which the magnitude of the interference effect was greater when place of articulation was the target dimension than when manner was the target dimension. In addition, the discriminability of the manner values did not affect the pattern of interference effects. The results were discussed in terms of a concurrent-contingent model of parallel processing wherein it was assumed that feature decisions along either dimension are affected by feature value along the other dimension, but that decisions about place of articulation are more dependent on manner information than manner decisions are on place information.

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