Opposing serial effects of stimulus and choice in speech perception scale with context variability.

In this study, we investigated serial effects on the perception of auditory vowel stimuli across three experimental setups with different degrees of context variability. Aligning with recent findings in visual perception, our results confirm the existence of two distinct processes in serial dependence: a repulsive sensory effect coupled with an attractive decisional effect. Importantly, our study extends these observations to the auditory domain, demonstrating parallel serial effects in audition.

Influence of voice properties on vowel perception depends on speaker context.

Different speakers produce the same intended vowel with very different physical properties. Fundamental frequency (F) and formant frequencies (F), the two main parameters that discriminate between voices, also influence vowel perception. While it has been shown that listeners comprehend speech more accurately if they are familiar with a talker's voice, it is still unclear how such prior information is used when decoding the speech stream.