Voices and Variants: Effects of Voice on the Form-Based Processing of Words with Different Phonological Variants

Spoken words have robust acoustic variation. How listeners understand spoken words despite this variation remains an issue central to theories of speech perception. Current models predict listener behavior based on the frequency of a variant in production. A phonological variant, though, is often investigated independent of phonetic variation that provides listeners with information about talkers. In this study, we investigate whether standard variants in words produced by a talker with a standard voice are recognized more quickly than standard variants in words produced by a talker with a nonstandard voice. Conversely, we investigate whether nonstandard variants in words produced by a talker with a standard voice are recognized more slowly than standard variants in words produced by a talker with a non-standard voice. These comparisons enable us to assess limitations of current theory, illuminating the understudied influence of talker voice in the understanding of spoken words with different phonological variants.