Temporal control and compensation for perturbed voicing feedback

Previous research employing a real-time auditory perturbation paradigm has shown that talkers monitor their own speech attributes such as fundamental frequency, vowel intensity, vowel formants, and fricative noise as part of speech motor control. In the case of vowel formants or fricative noise, what was manipulated is spectral information about the filter function of the vocal tract.

However, segments can be contrasted by parameters other than spectral configuration. It is possible that the feedback system monitors phonation timing in the way it does spectral information. This study examined whether talkers exhibit a compensatory behavior when manipulating information about voicing.

When talkers received feedback of the cognate of the intended voicing category (saying “tipper” while hearing “dipper” or vice versa), they changed the voice onset time and in some cases the following vowel.