The prototype model in speaker identification

Little is known on the perceptual processes of speaker identification and its relations to the acoustic features of the speaker’s voice. A study of speaker perception and identification by psycho-acoustic experiments was carried out. Statistical analysis of the results suggests that the prototype model is appropriate for explaining the process of speaker identification. It has been also found that the most important features for speaker identification were the fundamental frequency, the third and fourth formants and the closing phase of the glottal wave. For different listeners, different sets of features were found to be significant for coding speaker identity.