Vowels as Islands of Reliability.

Vowel nuclei of syllables appear to provide a relatively stable (although not stationary) frame of reference for judging consonant events. We offer evidence that reliable consonant identification demands prior or simultaneous evaluation of this "vocalic frame." Listeners were presented a list of /bVs/, /dVs/, and /gVs/ syllables and were instructed to press a response key immediately upon recognizing a particular initial consonant target.