Talker identification based on phonetic information.

TLDR

Word and talker identification typically rely on distinct acoustic cues, with listeners abstracting away talker‑specific features for word recognition and phoneme‑specific features for talker recognition. The study used three experiments with sinewave replicas of natural speech from ten talkers that removed natural voice quality while preserving phonetic variation. Listeners successfully identified sinewave talkers using only phonetic cues, indicating that phonetic properties can support both word and talker identification.

Abstract

Accounts of the identification of words and talkers commonly rely on different acoustic properties. To identify a word, a perceiver discards acoustic aspects of an utterance that are talker specific, forming an abstract representation of the linguistic message with which to probe a mental lexicon. To identify a talker, a perceiver discards acoustic aspects of an utterance specific to particular phonemes, creating a representation of voice quality with which to search for familiar talkers in long-term memory. In 3 experiments, sinewave replicas of natural speech sampled from 10 talkers eliminated natural voice quality while preserving idiosyncratic phonetic variation. Listeners identified the sinewave talkers without recourse to acoustic attributes of natural voice quality. This finding supports a revised description of speech perception in which the phonetic properties of utterances serve to identify both words and talkers.