Novel method to examine speech variability

What is it about?

We introduce a novel method to assess speech variability, and provide a simple example. We demonstrate that this approach can be used to compare sentences/utterances differing in linguistic complexity.

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Why is it important?

Variability is a critical and necessary component of speech production systems; a speaker rarely if ever repeats speech movements in the same way. Previous methods assess speech variability across sentences, and rely on calculations that alter speech data through normalization procedures. We introduce a technique that examines actual (i.e., un-normalized) speech movement within individual speech trajectories. This approach can complement existing measures for assessing variability, and be used to differentiate between conditions and speaker groups.