Temporal prediction and duration estimation are critical components of speech perception. Previous studies have shown that the rate of nonspeech precursors can influence speech categorization, potentially through an underlying domain-general mechanism known as entrainment. However, despitethe interest of phase in entrainment models and the observation of behavioral benefits from the phase effects in music and nonspeech tones, few studies have examined how the phase of precursors affects speech perception. In a series of experiments, we investigated a range of acoustic and experimental factors that might affect phase entrainment. Across eight psychophysical duration estimation experiments, we found robust tone-to-tone phase entrainment, with stronger effects observed in empty intervals (i.e., silence between two short pips) compared to filled intervals (i.e., continuous sounds from onset to offset), and in two-interval comparisons relative to one-interval comparisons. Further results indicate cross-domain tone-to-speech entrainment when p-centers of speech targets occur near acoustic onset. Additionally, auditory similarity modulates entrainment: targets that are acoustically similar to their precursors exhibit stronger entrainment effects than acoustically dissimilar targets. Findings highlight the influence of both auditory similarity and acoustic properties of the target, such as degree of spectrotemporal complexity, on phase entrainment.
Cheng et al. (Wed,) studied this question.