Computerized speech recognition: influence of intelligibility and perceptual consistency on recognition accuracy

The effects of intelligibility and consistency on the recognition accuracy of a speaker-adaptable speech recognition system (IBM VoiceType Version 1.0) were evaluated. Six participants who had dysarthria of speech across three severity levels (i.e., mild, moderate, severe) and six age- and gender-matched peers without speech impairments participated in the study. Productions of sentences were evaluated across five assessment sessions. Recognition accuracy was significantly higher for the speakers in the control group than for the speakers with dysarthria across severity levels. High levels of intelligibility correlated significantly with high recognition accuracy scores. Perceptual rankings of speech consistency did not correlate significantly with recognition accuracy scores. Results suggest that for speaker-adaptable systems, the more intelligible a speaker, the greater his or her success with the voice recognition system. Results also suggest that perceived inconsistencies in the speech productions of ...