Timing of pitch movements and accentuation of syllables

In this study the relation is investigated between the timing of a rising or falling pitch movement and the syllable it accents. The experiments were carried out with the five-syllable utterance Imamamamama/ in which the middle three syllables were exact replications of each other as to amplitude and spectral content. This utterance was provided with a rising or falling pitch movement superimposed on a gradual lowering of the pitch, the declination. The timing ofthe movement was systematically varied and subjects were asked to indicate which syllable they perceived as being accented. Pitch movements of three different durations were used, namely 80 ms, 120 ms and 160 ms. The results show that the percept of accentuation is induced by the change in pitch at the start of the movement.