Comparing human and automatic speech recognition using word gating

This paper describes a study in which we compare human and automatic recognition of words in fluent and disfluent spontaneous speech. In a word-level gating study with confidence judgements, we examine how the recognition and confidence of recognition of words by humans develops over utterances and show how disfluency disrupts the process. We give an automatic recogniser the same task and compare its performance with the humans’. With both systems, subsequent context supports word recognition: confidence in word recognition peaks after subsequent words have been heard. With both systems, disfluency adversely affects recognition of words in the immediate vicinity of the disfluent interruption (for repeats and repairs): disrupted subsequent context disrupts the recognition process. 1