Selection of a tonotopic scale for vowels

Various distinct tonotopic scales (e.g., log frequency, ERB, Bark) have been used for the representation of fundamental and formant frequency data for vowels. In previous work in our laboratories [T. Nearey, Proc. ICSLP92, 583–586 (1992)], generalized linear modeling was used to assess the relative appropriateness of these scales on both production measurement and vowel categorization data on each scale using several alternative vowel normalization schemes. That work focused on F0 and F1 and used the classic data of Peterson and Barney [G. Peterson and H. Barney, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 24, 175–184 (1952)]. Analysis of that data suggested that the log scale as provided somewhat better fits to the data with less evidence of violations of modeling assumptions. However, results in modeling perceptual data (from Canadian English listeners) were less clear. The present study will extend the scope of the earlier work by examining more data and expanding the statistical modeling framework. The production analyses wi...