Central Locus for Nonspeech Context Effects on Phonetic Identification

Recently, Holt and Lotto [Hear. Res. 167, 156–169(2002)] reported that preceding speech sounds can influence phonetic identification of a target syllable even when the context sounds are presented to the opposite ear or when there is a long intervening silence. These results led them to conclude that phonetic context effects are mostly due to nonperipheral auditory interactions. In the present paper, similar presentation manipulations were made with nonspeech context sounds. The results agree qualitatively with the results for speech contexts. Taken together, these findings suggest that the same nonperipheral mechanisms may be responsible for effects of both speech and nonspeech context on phonetic identification.