An investigation of the systematic use of spectral information in the determination of apparent-talker height

Abstract

The perception of apparent-talker height is mostly determined by the fundamental frequency (f0) and spectral characteristics of a voice. Although it is traditionally thought that spectral cues affect apparent-talker height by influencing apparent vocal-tract length, a recent experiment [Barreda (2016). J. Phon. 55, 1-18] suggests that apparent-talker height can vary significantly within-talker on the basis of phonemically-determined spectral variability. In this experiment, listeners were asked to estimate the height of 10 female talkers based on manipulated natural productions of bVd words containing one of /i æ ɑ u ɝ/. Results indicate that although listeners appear to use vocal-tract length estimates in determining apparent-height, apparent-talker height also varies significantly within-talker based on the inherent spectral and source characteristics of different vowels, with vowels with lower formant-frequencies and f0 being associated with taller talkers overall. The use of spectral and f0 information in apparent-height estimation varied considerably between listeners, resulting in additional variation in the apparent-height of talkers. Although the use of acoustic information in the determination of apparent-height was highly systematic, it does not necessarily follow from the empirical relationship between speech acoustics and actual talker height.