The Effect of Phonetic Complexity On Speaker Height and Weight Identification

Our purpose was to determine the effect of phonetic complexity on speaker height and weight identification in an attempt to establish the minimal acoustic cues necessary for distinguishing speakers' heights and weights. A total of 28 speakers, 14 females and 14 males, recorded 16 utterances representing four levels of phonetic complexity: isolated vowels, monosyllabic words, bisyllabic words and sentences. Eight master tapes were constructed, one for each of the four levels of phonetic complexity and the two sex groups. Twenty-four female judges participated in four experimental sessions, one for each level of phonetic complexity. In each session they heard the female and male tapes of one kind of stimulus and were asked to make direct estimations of the speakers' heights and weights. Results show that listeners are capable of accurate height and weight identification at all levels of phonetic complexity investigated. Differences in listener accuracy are, on average, only 0.41 inches and 1.44 lbs. Moreover, no regular, progressive trend is evident in listener accuracy from the simplest to the most complex stimuli. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.