How context affects perception: judging distress & linguistic content in forensic audio recordings

Authors

  • Lisa Roberts Department of Language and Linguistic Science, University of York, UK Author
  • Peter French J. P. French Associates, York, UK Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36505/ExLing-2010/03/0039/000159

Keywords:

perception, distress, forensic, context, linguistic content

Abstract

In order to assess the role of context on the perception of speech sounds, extracts of speech material from authentic forensic cases were played to two groups of listeners (experienced vs inexperienced forensic phoneticians) in two conditions (with and without sequential context). Listeners were asked to categorise each extract according to a four-way scale of perceptible distress and rate each extract according to a five-point scale of perceptible linguistic content. Findings show that extracts played without context are perceived as reflecting higher degrees of distress and lower levels of linguistic content. Experienced phoneticians performed more consistently as a group and were less prone to changing their responses across the two conditions.

References

Fraser, H. 2003. Issues in transcription: Factors affecting the reliability of transcripts as evidence in legal cases. International Journal of Speech Language and the Law, 10(2), 203-226.

Hirson, A., & Howard, D.M. 1994. Spectrographic analysis of a cockpit voice recorder tape. Forensic Linguistics, 1(1), 59–69.

International Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics. (n.d.). Code of Practice – Section 9. (Accessed March 30, 2009).

Jefferson, G. 1978. What’s in a ‘nyem’? Sociology, 12(1), 135-139.

Rose, P. 2009. Evaluation of disputed utterance evidence in the matter of David Bain’s retrial. Report prepared for court case, 23 February 2009. (Accessed March 25, 2010 from http://forensic-voice-comparison.net/publications.html).

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Published

01-01-2010

How to Cite

How context affects perception: judging distress & linguistic content in forensic audio recordings. (2010). Linguistic Proceedings Series, 3(1), 153-156. https://doi.org/10.36505/ExLing-2010/03/0039/000159

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