Comparative Analysis of MLP, CNN, and RNN Models in Automatic Speech Recognition: Dissecting Performance Metric

This study conducts a comparative analysis of three prominent machine learning models: Multi-Layer Perceptrons (MLP), Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), and Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN) with Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) in the field of automatic speech recognition (ASR). This research is distinct in its use of the LibriSpeech 'test-clean' dataset, selected for its diversity in speaker accents and varied recording conditions, establishing it as a robust benchmark for ASR performance evaluation. Our approach involved preprocessing the audio data to ensure consistency and extracting Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs) as the primary features, crucial for capturing the nuances of human speech. The models were meticulously configured with specific architectural details and hyperparameters. The MLP and CNN models were designed to maximize their pattern recognition capabilities, while the RNN (LSTM) was optimized for processing temporal data. To assess their performance, we employed metrics such as precision, recall, and F1-score. The MLP and CNN models demonstrated exceptional accuracy, with scores of 0.98 across these metrics, indicating their effectiveness in feature extraction and pattern recognition. In contrast, the LSTM variant of RNN showed lower efficacy, with scores below 0.60, highlighting the challenges in handling sequential speech data. The results of this study shed light on the differing capabilities of these models in ASR. While the high accuracy of MLP and CNN suggests potential overfitting, the underperformance of LSTM underscores the necessity for further refinement in sequential data processing. This research contributes to the understanding of various machine learning approaches in ASR and paves the way for future investigations. We propose exploring hybrid model architectures and enhancing feature extraction methods to develop more sophisticated, real-world ASR systems. Additionally, our findings underscore the importance of considering model-specific strengths and limitations in ASR applications, guiding the direction of future research in this rapidly evolving field