The use of distinctive features as cues to speech recognition should result in performances for signals that differ as a function of response alternatives. Recognition of a speech unit that shares many features of alternative responses must rely upon reception of the one or few uniquely held features. Recognition of a speech unit that shares few, if any, features will occur with reception of (almost) any of its features. A four‐person talker‐listener round robin generated nonsense syllables of a CV type using the consonant /t/ and two others, and the vowel /a/ and two others. Each of the nine syllables was delivered 100 times in random order in each set. Each listener responded with a choice for each signal plus a confidence rating on his decision. Additional sets were generated by retaining the consonants and the /a/ but using two different vowels, or by retaining the vowels and /t/ and using two different consonants. Other sets used the original elements but always placed an /r/ for a CrV syllable, and still others added a final /k/ for a CrVk syllable. Utilities of response choices were systematically varied and response confusions generated for each talker‐listener dyad. Results on stability of recognition performance pertinent to the influence of context are discussed.