Recognizing speech in the context of talker variability

The relationship of the acoustic patterns of speech to phonetic categories varies across talkers. A change in talker therefore requires listeners use this relationship which depends on determining the acoustic-phonetic mapping for a new talker. The work from our group has demonstrated that tuning the perceptual system to the acoustic-phonetic system of a new talker is associated with a redirection of attention and a momentary increased load on working memory. These empirical findings support the hypothesis that speech perception is best thought of as an active cognitive process, where the ambiguity of the acoustic signal determines the mobilization of cognitive resources needed to support accurate perception. In this talk, I will (1) discuss the implication of these results for both cognitive and neural models of speech perception and (2) make the argument that extant theories of speech perception must address recognition in the context of acoustic-linguistic pattern variability, such as talker variability, as it is central to the computational problem of understanding speech perception.