DECTalk and MacinTalk speech synthesizers: intelligibility differences for three listener groups

This study examined word level intelligibility differences between DECTalk and MacinTalk speech synthesizers using the Modified Rhyme Test in an open format transcription task. Three groups of listeners participated: inexperienced, speech-language pathologists, and speech synthesis experts. Results for between-subjects ANOVA showed that the expert group correctly identified a significantly higher number of words than each of the other listener groups. For the within-subjects factor of voice, simple effects ANOVA and post hoc contrasts within each group showed that listeners had higher intelligibility scores for the DECTalk male voice, Perfect Paul, than for the MacinTalk male voice, Bruce. No other pairwise gender/age-matched differences were found between the two synthesizers.