The Influence of the Semantic Material on the Assessment of Speech Reception Threshold

• Autorzy: Krenz M. , Wicher A. , Sęk A.

Identyfikatory

DOI

10.1515/aoa-2015-0006

• Języki publikacji: EN

Abstrakty

EN

To determine speech intelligibility using the test suggested by Ozimek et al. (2009), the subject composed sentences with the words presented on a computer screen. However, the number and the type of these words were chosen arbitrarily. The subject was always presented with 18, similarly sounding words. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine whether the number and the type of alternative words used by Ozimek et al. (2009), had a significant influence on the speech intelligibility. The aim was also to determine an optimal number of alternative words: i.e., the number that did not affect the speech reception threshold (SRT) and not unduly lengthened the duration of the test. The study conducted using a group of 10 subjects with normal hearing showed that an increase in the number of words to choose from 12 to 30 increased the speech intelligibility by about 0.3 dB/6 words. The use of paronyms as alternative words as opposed to random words, leads to an increase in the speech intelligibility by about 0.6 dB, which is equivalent to a decrease in intelligibility by 15 percentage points. Enlarging the number of words to choose from, and switching alternative words to paronyms, led to an increase in response time from approximately 11 to 16 s. It seems that the use of paronyms as alternative words as well as using 12 or 18 words to choose from is the best choice when using the Polish Sentence Test (PST).

Słowa kluczowe

EN

speech intelligibility; speech test; speech reception threshold

• Wydawca: Instytut Podstawowych Problemów Techniki PAN ; Komitet Akustyki PAN ; Polskie Towarzystwo Akustyczne
• Czasopismo: Archives of Acoustics
• Rocznik: 2015
• Tom: Vol. 40, No. 1
• Strony: 41--50
• Opis fizyczny: Bibliogr. 17 poz., rys., wykr.

Twórcy

autor

Krenz M.

• Institute of Acoustics, Faculty of Physics, Adam Mickiewicz University, Umultowska 85, 61-614 Poznań, Poland

autor

Wicher A.

• Institute of Acoustics, Faculty of Physics, Adam Mickiewicz University, Umultowska 85, 61-614 Poznań, Poland

autor

Sęk A.

• Institute of Acoustics, Faculty of Physics, Adam Mickiewicz University, Umultowska 85, 61-614 Poznań, Poland

Bibliografia

• 1. Brachmański S., Staroniewicz P. (1999), Phonetic structure of a test material used in speech quality measurements [in Polish: Fonetyczna struktura materiału testowego stosowanego w subiektywnych pomiarach jakości mowy], Speech and Language Technology, 3, 71–80.
• 2. Brungart D., Iyer N., Thompson E.R., Simpson B.D., Gordon-Salant S., Schurman J., Vogel C., Grant K. (2013), Interactions between listening effort and masker type on the energetic and informational masking of speech stimuli, Acoustical Society of America Meeting, Montreal, 19, 060146, 1–9.
• 3. Cooke M., Garcia Lecumberri M.L., Barker J. (2008), The foreign language cocktail party problem: Energetic and informational masking effects in non-native speech perception, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 123, 414–427.
• 4. Fastl H. (1987), A background noise for speech audiometry, Audiological Acoustics, 26, 2–13.
• 5. Głowiński M., Kostkiewiczowa T., Okopień-Sławińska A., Sławiński J. (1998), Dictionary of literary terms [in Polish: Słownik terminow literackich], (Ossolineum, Wrocław).
• 6. Kidd Jr. G., Mason C.R., Richards V.M., Gallun F.J., Durlach N.I. (2007), Informational masking, [in:] Auditory Perception of Sound Sources, Yost W.A., Popper A.N. Popper, Fay R.R. [Eds.], Springer Handbook of Auditory Research, 29, 2008, 143–189.
• 7. Kita M., Polański E. (2004), Paronyms dictionary [in Polish: Słownik paronimow czyli wyrazów mylonych], PWN, Poznań.
• 8. Kluk K., Moore B.C.J. (2001), Logatome intelligibility presented at a background of a speech-shaped noise for persons with “dead regions” in a high frequency range [in Polish: Wyrazistość logatomow prezentowanych na tle szumu mowopodobnego dla osob z niedosłuchem typu ‘martwe pola’ w zakresie wysokich częstotliwości ], Proceedings of Open Seminar on Acoustics, Wrocław-Polanica Zdroj.
• 9. Kollmeier B.,Wesselkamp M. (1997), Development and evaluation of a German sentence test for objective and subjective speech intelligibility assessment, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 102, 2412–2421.
• 10. Lane P., Galwey N., Alvey N. (1987), Genstat 5. An Introduction, (Clarendon Press, Oxford).
• 11. Levitt H. (1971), Transformed up-down methods in psychoacoustics, J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 49, 467–477.
• 12. Ozimek E., Kutzner D., Sęk A., Wicher A. (2009), Polish sentence tests for measuring the intelligibility of speech in interfering noise, International Journal of Audiology, 48, 433–443.
• 13. Plomp R., Mimpen A.M. (1979), Improving the reliability of testing the speech reception threshold for sentences, Audiol., 18, 43–53.
• 14. Pruszewicz A., Demenko G., Richter L., Wika T. (1994a), New articulation lists for speech audiometry. Part I, Otolaryngol. Pol., 48, 50–55.
• 15. Pruszewicz A., Demenko G., Richter L., Wika T. (1994b), New articulation lists for speech audiometry. Part II, Otolaryngol. Pol., 48, 56–62.
• 16. Shinn-Cunningham B. (2013), Understanding informational masking from a neural perspective, Acoustical Socitety of America Meeting, Montreal, 19, 060143, 1–3.
• 17. Versfeld N.J., Daalder L., Festen J.M., Houtgast T. (2000), Method for the selection of sentence materials for efficient measurement of the speech reception threshold, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 107, 1671–1684.