Perceived Prominence Reflected by Imitations of Words with and without F0 Continuity

This paper continues our work on the perception of prominence as a function of F0 continuity. In an earlier study the first author had shown that F0 intervals occurring at lexically stressed syllables - and measured using the amplitude of Fujisaki model accent commands - strongly contribute to the perceived prominence of that syllable. More recent work explored how F0 continuity influenced prominence ratings of single word utterances. The outcome indicated that listeners made use of the physically available F0 information and therefore words containing gaps in the contour were perceived as less prominent. It was also shown that subjects were able to interpolate missing parts as long as the F0 peak was still present. The current study explores whether subjects compensate the lack of prominence in words containing F0 gaps by asking them to produce a word with the same accent strength as that of a spoken word stimulus, the spoken word being either the same or different from the one they are asked to utter. We evaluated word durations, F0 intervals and intensities of the responses as correlates of prominence and found that listeners indeed seem to adjust depending on the kind of stimulus they have heard.