Voice identification accuracy using multivariate vowel formant analysis.

Spatial audio has been demonstrated to enhance performance in a variety of listening tasks. The utility of visually reinforcing spatialized audio with depictions of voice locations in collaborative applications, however, has been questioned. In this experiment, we compared the accuracy, response time, confidence in task performance, and subjective mental workload of 18 participants in a voice-identification task under three different display conditions: 1) traditional mono audio; 2) spatial audio; 3) spatial audio with a visual representation of voice locations. Each format was investigated using four and eight unique stimuli voices. Results showed greater voice-identification accuracy for the spatial-plus-visual format than for the spatialand mono-only formats, and that visualization benefits increased with voice number. Spatialization was also found to increase confidence in task performance. Response time and mental workload remained unchanged across display conditions. These results indicate visualizations may benefit users of large, unfamiliar audio spaces.

Download Full-text

Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Naturalness in Speakers of Varying Gender Identities

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2020_jslhr-19-00337 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 63 (7) ◽

pp. 2054-2069

Author(s):

Brandon Merritt ◽

Tessa Bent

Keyword(s):

Spontaneous Speech ◽

Identification Accuracy ◽

Rating Task ◽

Gender Identification ◽

Identification Task ◽

Male And Female ◽

Perceptual Evaluation ◽

Speech Training ◽

And Gender ◽

Speech Naturalness

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate how speech naturalness relates to masculinity–femininity and gender identification (accuracy and reaction time) for cisgender male and female speakers as well as transmasculine and transfeminine speakers. Method Stimuli included spontaneous speech samples from 20 speakers who are transgender (10 transmasculine and 10 transfeminine) and 20 speakers who are cisgender (10 male and 10 female). Fifty-two listeners completed three tasks: a two-alternative forced-choice gender identification task, a speech naturalness rating task, and a masculinity/femininity rating task. Results Transfeminine and transmasculine speakers were rated as significantly less natural sounding than cisgender speakers. Speakers rated as less natural took longer to identify and were identified less accurately in the gender identification task; furthermore, they were rated as less prototypically masculine/feminine. Conclusions Perceptual speech naturalness for both transfeminine and transmasculine speakers is strongly associated with gender cues in spontaneous speech. Training to align a speaker's voice with their gender identity may concurrently improve perceptual speech naturalness. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12543158

Download Full-text