COMPENSATION TO ARTICULATORY PERTURBATION - PERCEPTUAL DATA

The perceptual adequacy of vowels, stop consonants, and fricatives pro duced under conditions of articulatory perturbation was explored. In a previous study [McFarland and Baum, J. Acoust. Sec. Am. 97, 1865-1873 (1995)], acoustic analyses of segments produced in two subtests (imme diate compensation and postconversation) revealed small but significan t changes in spectral characteristics of vowels and consonants under b ite-block as compared to normal conditions. For the vowels only, adapt ation increased subsequent to a period of conversation with the bite b lock in place, suggesting that compensation may develop over time and that consonants may require a longer period of adaptation. The present follow-up investigation examined whether the acoustic differences acr oss conditions were perceptually salient. Ten listeners performed an i dentification and a quality rating task for stimuli from the earlier a coustic study. Results revealed reductions in identification scores an d quality ratings for a subset of the vowels and consonants in the bit e-block conditions relative to the normal condition in the immediate c ompensation subtest. Ln the postconversation subtest, quality ratings for the fricatives in the bite-block condition remained low as compare d to those in the normal condition. Perceptual results are compared to the previous acoustic data gathered on these stimuli. (C) 1996 Acoust ical Society of America.