Abstract: Phonetic category is an important concept in speech perception. Generally, phonetic category includes consonant category and vowel category. In phonetics, there are many differences in the acoustic and articulatory features between consonant and vowel category. With priming paradigm, the present study aimed to explore the differences of priming effects between consonant and vowel perception. Few studies compare the differences of priming effect in consonant and vowel perception. With non-speech and speech sounds as priming sounds, consonant or vowel category continuum as target sounds, response time and the percentage of category response as dependent variables, the present study examines the priming effect differences of consonant and vowel perception in two experiments. In experiment 1, the priming effect of consonant category perception was examined. The target sound was a Chinese stop contrast continuum, [ta]-[ka], which was synthesized by varying the onset frequency of F3 (the third formant) transition. The priming sounds were two non-speech tones and two speech sounds. The frequency of two tones was equal to the F3 onset frequency of [ta] and [ka] respectively. The onset 100ms segments of [ta] and [ka] acted as the two speech priming sounds. Participants were asked to identify the target sounds by pressing buttons labeled with “da” or “ga” as quickly as possible. The results showed that both tone and speech primes influenced the percentage of consonant category identification, tone primes increased the response of spectral-matched consonant category, while speech primes increased the response of spectral-opposed consonant category. In addition, only speech primes showed priming effect in response time for spectral-matched category. In experiment 2, the priming effect of vowel category perception was examined. The target sound was a Chinese vowel category continuum, [a]-[ε]. The priming sounds were two tones and two speech sounds. The frequency of two tones was set at the F2 frequency of [a] and [ε] respectively. The onset 100ms segments of [a] and [ε] served as the speech primes. The results indicated that neither tone nor speech primes could affect the percentage of vowel identification, but speech primes showed priming effect in response time. The experiment results indicated that the priming effects in consonant and vowel perception were different. For consonant category, the category judgment was more easily affected by prior priming sounds, but the speed of category identification was not easily influenced by spectrally partial-matched primes. For vowel category, the speed of category identification was susceptible to the primes, but the category judgment was resistant to the influence of primes. Some researchers suggested that the perceptual trace of consonant category (rapid-changing sound) decays faster than that of vowel category (steady-state sounds), and the perception of consonants relies more on the category labels. So it seems that the category judgment of rapid-changing sounds is easily influenced by context sounds because of fast decay of perceptual traces and more reliance on category labels, while the speed of category identification of steady-state sounds is easily affected by context sounds for its clearer perceptual traces.

Key words: phonetic category, consonant, vowel, tone, priming effect

摘要： 采用启动范式，在两个实验中分别考察了辅音范畴和元音范畴知觉中的启动效应。启动音是纯音和目标范畴本身，目标音是辅音范畴和元音范畴连续体。结果发现辅音范畴连续体知觉的范畴反应百分比受到纯音和言语启动音影响，辅音范畴知觉的反应时只受言语启动音影响；元音范畴连续体知觉的范畴反应百分比不受两种启动音影响，但元音范畴知觉的反应时受到言语启动音影响。实验结果表明辅音范畴和元音范畴知觉中的启动效应存在差异，这为辅音和元音范畴内在加工机制的差异提供了新证据。

关键词: 语音范畴, 辅音, 元音, 纯音, 启动效应