Assessing perceived voice similarity using Multidimensional Scaling for the construction of voice parades

Authors

  • Kirsty McDougall University of Cambridge

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsll.v20i2.163

Keywords:

voice parades, voice line-ups, earwitness identification, perceived voice similarity

Abstract

In recent years forensic phoneticians, in consultation with psychologists and law enforcement officers, have put considerable effort into devising and refining procedures for preparing and conducting fair voice parades. In England and Wales, a procedure for conducting a voice parade is outlined in a 2003 Home Office circular; this has been successfully implemented in a number of cases. These guidelines explain that a phonetician should examine the foil voice samples to ensure that the voices provide a fair comparison against the suspect, however, a formalised method for making this comparison is not offered. The present paper presents a method for assessing the degree of perceived (lay-listener judged) similarity among a group of voices for potential inclusion in a voice parade using Multidimensional Scaling.

Author Biography

  • Kirsty McDougall, University of Cambridge
    Kirsty McDougall is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, University of Cambridge, and Fellow and Director of Studies in Linguistics at Clare College, Cambridge. She was previously a Research Associate on the forensic phonetics projects DyViS and VoiceSim. Her research interests include speaker characteristics, theories of speech production, phonetic realisation of varieties of English, and forensic phonetics. She is a member of IAFPA.

Published

2013-12-17

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

McDougall, K. (2013). Assessing perceived voice similarity using Multidimensional Scaling for the construction of voice parades. International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law, 20(2), 163-172. https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsll.v20i2.163