Talker gender effects in the Ferguson Clear Speech Database

Abstract

The Ferguson Clear Speech Database (FCSD; Ferguson, 2004) was designed to support a talker-differences approach to the investigation of the acoustic characteristics that underlie the superior intelligibility of clear speech. However, its size (41 talkers) and balanced gender composition (21 females and 20 males) have made it useful for exploring talker gender effects on a wide array of acoustic and perceptual measures. In this talk, I will present comparisons of male and female talkers from previous studies as well as more recent ones, along with new analyses of old data. I will also consider how the magnitude of any talker gender differences compares to the variability observed within each gender.