Characterization of speech understanding in various types of noise

• DOI: 10.1121/1.4751538
• Publication Date: 2012-10-03T22:29:09Z
• Authors: Lena L. N. Wong; Elaine H. N. Ng; Sigfrid D. Soli
• Keywords: Intelligibility (philosophy)

This study examined (1) the effects of noise on speech understanding and (2) whether performance in real-life noises could be predicted based steady-state speech-spectrum-shaped noise. The conditions included a six types Thirty normal-hearing adults were tested using sentence materials from Cantonese Hearing In Noise Test (CHINT). To achieve first aim, performance–intensity function slopes these estimated compared. Variations attributed to differences amount amplitude fluctuations presence competing background speech. How well data obtained fit functions was for second aim study. Four out yielded similar that After accounting individual reception threshold (SRT) offset between signal-to-noise ratio 50% intelligibility across different noise, found predict most conditions.