speech continuum
... chart based upon the graph given by the computer program. I then repeated this experiment. The independent variable was the randomness of the sounds. The second experiment, the Discrimination test, was done the same as the first – in a computer lab with headphones. The computer screen now had two buttons that said “same” or “different,” and I was presented with ten, randomized pairs of “ba,” “da,” and “ga” sounds. After each pair of sounds, I clicked the appropriate button for whether I believed the pair to be the same sound or different sounds. I then listed the percentages of my “same versus different” identifications in an Excel chart and repeated the entire Discrimination experiment. The independent variable in this experiment was the groupings of the sounds. The first experiment proved that listeners do tend to group similar speech sounds into distinct categories. As formants change, listeners become more unsure but still tend to group the sounds with either the previous category of sound or form a new category as formants get more distinct. The...