ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses two experiments were performed to determine the effect changes in relative amplitude and presentation level may have on labeling the /p/ – /t/ contrast. Listeners with normal hearing and listeners with sensorineural hearing loss were tested. Synthetic CV stimuli were used for both experiments, with manipulations of relative amplitude in the F4–F5 frequency region spanning a 20 dB range. Experiment 1 manipulated formant transitions, relative amplitude, and presentation level. Experiment 2 tested listeners with normal hearing in a background of broadband noise presented at a level that produced thresholds at 4 kHz equivalent to the thresholds of five listeners with sensorineural hearing loss. The amplitude of a major peak in the burst spectrum of a stop consonant relative to a spectral peak in the same frequency region of the adjacent vowel may be a cue for consonant place of articulation.
