FACTOR is pleased to announce a talk by Alice Paver (Cambridge), in partnership with PhonLab:

TITLE

Perceived voice similarity, voice quality and the telephone effect: an experiment

ABSTRACT

Voice quality (VQ) is considered a key speaker-specific feature for speaker comparison conducted by forensic phoneticians, but as audio samples for analysis are often of poor and/or mismatched quality (e.g. telephone vs. police interview), analysts must consider the potential effect of audio quality on perception of VQ which can affect expert assessments. Perceived voice similarity (PVS) is also a concern for experts, not just for speaker comparison but also when collecting earwitness evidence via voice parades. VQ is a phonetic correlate of PVS judgements by lay-listeners, and telephone transmission is known to reduce perceptual distance between voices, but the perceptual effect of reduced audio quality on specific VQ settings across multiple speakers is not yet known. An online experiment investigated the relationship between VQ and PVS in different audio quality conditions. This talk will discuss findings and their implications for our understanding of perceived voice similarity and the role voice quality plays in forensically relevant audio quality conditions.

TIME & PLACE

W04, 1500-1550, Tue 28th Oct 2025

In-person: County South B89

Online: Teams

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