Prominence caused by rising and falling pitch movements with different positions in the syllable

Two experiments were carried out in order to find out whether subjects could compare the prominence of syllables accented by different kinds of piteh movement, and whether the perceived prominence depended on the position of the pitch movement in the syllable. The experiments consisted of adjustment runs, in which subjects adjusted the variable excursion size of a comparison stimulus to the fixed excursion size of a test stimulus. until the accented syllable in the test- and the comparison stimulus had equal prominence. These experiments were carried out on the utterance /mamama/. the second syllable of which was accented. In the ftrst experiment, three different kinds of accent-lending pitch movements with common positions in the syllable were compared, the rise starting 70 ms, the fall 20 ms, and the rise-fall 70 ms before the vowel onset. It was found that subjects could compare the prominence lent by these pitch movements. When lending equal prominence, the rise and the rise-fall had the same excursion size. The fall, however, appeared to have a smaller excursion size than the rise or the rise-fall. In the second experiment, the rise and the fall, each with ftve different positions in the accented syllable, were compared with the standard rise-fall starting 70 ms before the vowel onset. It appeared that subjects could compare the prominence lent by this rise-fall with each of the five falls and with a rise, provided this last started before the vowel onset. Comparisons with the rise starting later than the vowel onset were found to be much more variable. When equal prominence was lent, the early rise and the rise-fall were of the same size. The fall, however, appeared to be smaller in excursion size, again, independently of its position in the syllable. The perceptual basis underlying these results is discussed