Abstract
Speech produced in noise: Relationship between listening difficulty and spectral and durational parameters
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol.139(4), pp.2046-2046
04/2016
DOI: 10.1121/1.4950053
Abstract
Conversational speech produced in noise can be characterized by increases in intelligibility relative to conversational speech produced in quiet. The objectives of the study were to evaluate the listening difficulty of speech produced in different noise and style conditions, to evaluate the spectral and durational speech modifications that occurred in these conditions, and to determine whether the spectral or durational parameters predicted listening difficulty. Nineteen subjects were instructed to speak at normal or loud volumes in the presence of background noise at 40.5 dB(A) and babble noise at 61 dB(A). The speech signal was amplitude-normalised, combined with pink noise to obtain a signal-to-noise ratio of −6 dB, and presented to 20 raters who judged their listening difficulty. It was found that vowel duration, fundamental frequency (f
o
, in semitones) and the proportion of the spectral energy in high relative to low frequencies increased with the level of the noise, independently of the effect of style. Listening difficulty was lowest when the speech was produced in the presence of high level noise and in the loud style, indicating improved intelligibility. The difference in spectral energy was observed to predict listening difficulty, and, therefore, intelligibility scores (IS, the percentage of words understood correctly).
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Speech produced in noise: Relationship between listening difficulty and spectral and durational parameters
- Creators
- Simone Graetzer - Michigan State UniversityPasquale Bottalico - Michigan State UniversityEric J. Hunter - Michigan State University
- Resource Type
- Abstract
- Publication Details
- The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol.139(4), pp.2046-2046
- DOI
- 10.1121/1.4950053
- ISSN
- 0001-4966
- eISSN
- 1520-8524
- Number of pages
- 1
- Date published
- 04/2016
- Academic Unit
- Communication Sciences and Disorders
- Record Identifier
- 9984446694702771
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