DETECTION OF SILENT TEMPORAL GAPS BETWEEN NARROW-BAND NOISE MARKERS HAVING 2ND-FORMANTLIKE PROPERTIES OF VOICELESS STOP VOWEL COMBINATIONS

Temporal gap detection thresholds were measured in narrow-band noise-burst markers having acoustic characteristics representative of isolated steady-state second-formant (F2) properties for /p,t,k/ paired separately with /(sic)/. The results revealed that gap detection threshold increased systematically as the difference was increased between the simulated stop and vowel F2 frequencies. A strong positive correlation (r = 0.87) between gap detection threshold and linear marker center frequency difference was highly significant (p < 0.001). Differences in other stimulus features had little influence on gap detection performance. Implications for speech perception are discussed.