The Iambic-Trochaic Law (Bolton, 1894; Hayes, 1995; Woodrow, 1909) asserts that listeners associate greater intensity with group beginnings (a loud-first preference) and greater duration with group endings (a long-last preference). Hayes (1987; 1995) posits a natural connection between the prominences referred to in the ITL and the locations of stressed syllables in feet. However, not all lengthening in final positions originates with stressed syllables, and greater duration may also be associated with stress in nonfinal (trochaic) positions. The research described here challenged the notion that presumptive long-last effects necessarily reflect stress-related duration patterns, and investigated the general hypothesis that the robustness of long-last effects should vary depending on the strength of the association between final positions and increased duration, whatever its source. Two ITL studies were conducted in which native speakers of Spanish and of English grouped streams of rhythmically alternating syllables in which vowel intensity and/or duration levels were varied. These languages were chosen because while they are prosodically similar, increased duration on constituent-final syllables is both more common and more salient in English than Spanish. Outcomes revealed robust loud-first effects in both language groups. Long-last effects were significantly weaker in the Spanish group when vowel duration was varied singly. However, long-last effects were present and comparable in both language groups when intensity and duration were covaried. Intensity was a more robust predictor of responses than duration. A primary conclusion was that whether or not humans’ rhythmic grouping preferences have an innate component, duration-based grouping preferences, at least, and the magnitude of intensity-based effects are shaped by listeners’ backgrounds.

中文翻译：

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母语为西班牙语和英语的人之间的抑扬格-特罗恰克律效应

Iambic-Trochaic 定律（Bolton，1894 年；Hayes，1995 年；Woodrow，1909 年）断言，听众将更大的强度与团体开始（响亮的优先偏好）和更长的持续时间与团体结束（长期持续的偏好）联系起来。Hayes (1987; 1995) 假设在 ITL 中提到的突起与脚中重读音节的位置之间存在自然联系。然而，并非所有韵母位置的延长都源于重读音节，更长的持续时间也可能与非韵母（低音）位置的重音相关。这里描述的研究挑战了推定的长期效应必然反映与压力相关的持续时间模式的观念，并研究了一个普遍的假设，即长期效应的稳健性应该根据最终位置和增加持续时间之间的关联强度而变化，无论其来源如何。进行了两项 ITL 研究，其中以西班牙语和英语为母语的人将韵律交替的音节流分组，其中元音强度和/或持续时间水平不同。之所以选择这些语言，是因为虽然它们在韵律上相似，但在英语中比西班牙语更常见且更突出的成分尾音节的持续时间增加。结果显示，两个语言组都具有强大的响亮优先效应。当元音持续时间单独变化时，西班牙语组的持久效应明显较弱。然而，当强度和持续时间共变时，两个语言组都存在持久效应并且具有可比性。强度是比持续时间更可靠的反应预测指标。一个主要的结论是，人类的节奏分组偏好是否具有先天成分，至少基于持续时间的分组偏好，以及基于强度的效果的大小是由听众的背景决定的。