On the role of the amplitude of the fricative noise in the perception of place of articulation in voiceless fricative consonants

The current study explores the role of the amplitude of the fricative noise in the perception of place of articulation in voiceless fricative consonants. The amplitude of the fricative noise in naturally produced fricative-vowel utterances was varied relative to the vowel and potential changes in perceptual responses were investigated. The amplitude of the fricative noise for s and s was reduced such that the amplitude of the noise relative to the vowel was similar to f and O, and, conversely, the amplitude of the fricative noise of f and O was increased such that the amplitude of the noise relative to the vowel was similar to s and s. The fricative noise was presented to listeners in both its vowel context and in isolation. Results indicated that, when the spectral properties of the fricative noise and formant transitions are compatible, the perceptual effects of the amplitude manipulation of the amplitude of the noise had a small effect on the overall identification of place of articulation, and when effects emerged, they varied across the different fricative stimuli. Moreover, although decreasing the amplitude of s and s resulted in an increase in f and O responses, increasing the amplitude of f and O did not result in an increase in s and s responses. Implications of these findings for phonetic feature theories are considered.