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Categorical perception experiments


10.1 Demonstration of a continuum going from bad to bat

Instructions for listening to Recordings 10.2 and 10.3
Recordings 10.2 and 10.3 each have nine items, each of which might be either bad or bat. Write down whichever of the two words you think it is. Some of the words may sound like neither bad nor bat, in which case you should just guess which you think it is most like. The words are 1.5 seconds apart, so you won't have much time to make up your mind. It's your quick guesses that matter.

10.2 A randomly ordered set of words in the bad — bat continuum
10.3 Another randomly ordered set of words in the bad — bat continuum

Answer: the order in Recording 10.2

Answer: the order in Recording 10.3


Instructions for listening to Recordings 10.4 and 10.5

Recordings 10.4 and 10.5 each have ten pairs of words. Half of each of these recordings consists of the same word repeated, the other half are two slightly different versions. Your task is to say whether the pair is the same word repeated or two different versions of the word. Write “s” if they are the same, or “d” if they sound different.



10.4 A set of pairs of adjacent words in the bad — bat continuum
10.5 Another set of pairs of adjacent words in the bad — bat continuum


Answer: the words in Recording 10.4
Answer: the words in Recording 10.5

Recordings 10.6 is an example of an imperfect continuum (see text).
10.6 A continuum going from slash to splash

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