Journal article
Speech produced in noise: Relationship between listening difficulty and acoustic and durational parameters
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol.142(2), pp.974-983
08/01/2017
DOI: 10.1121/1.4997906
PMCID: 5648561
PMID: 28863615
Abstract
Conversational speech produced in noise can be characterised by increases in intelligibility relative to such speech produced in quiet. Listening difficulty (LD) is a metric that can be used to evaluate speech transmission performance more sensitively than intelligibility scores in situations in which performance is likely to be high. The objectives of the present study were to evaluate the LD of speech produced in different noise and style conditions, to evaluate the spectral and durational speech modifications associated with these conditions, and to determine whether any of the spectral and durational parameters predicted LD. Nineteen subjects were instructed to speak at normal and loud volumes in the presence of background noise at 40.5 dB(A) and babble noise at 61 dB(A). The speech signals were amplitude-normalised, combined with pink noise to obtain a signal-to-noise ratio of -6 dB, and presented to twenty raters who judged their LD. Vowel duration, fundamental frequency and the proportion of the spectral energy in high vs low frequencies increased with the noise level within both styles. LD was lowest when the speech was produced in the presence of high level noise and at a loud volume, indicating improved intelligibility. Spectrum balance was observed to predict LD. (C) 2017 Acoustical Society of America.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Speech produced in noise: Relationship between listening difficulty and acoustic and durational parameters
- Creators
- Simone Graetzer - University of LiverpoolPasquale Bottalico - Michigan State UniversityEric J. Hunter - Michigan State University
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol.142(2), pp.974-983
- DOI
- 10.1121/1.4997906
- PMID
- 28863615
- PMCID
- 5648561
- NLM abbreviation
- J Acoust Soc Am
- ISSN
- 0001-4966
- eISSN
- 1520-8524
- Publisher
- Acoustical Soc Amer Amer Inst Physics
- Number of pages
- 10
- Grant note
- R01DC012315 / National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01DC012315 / NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DEAFNESS AND OTHER COMMUNICATION DISORDERS; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA; NIH National Institute on Deafness & Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 08/01/2017
- Academic Unit
- Communication Sciences and Disorders
- Record Identifier
- 9984446449802771
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