title: Effects of envelope expansion on speech recognition.
abstract: This study investigated the effects of expanding the gross time-amplitude variations of 'speech-envelope noise' stimuli on speech recognition. The initial stimuli were VCV logatomes presented in quiet or against a steady white noise with a 0-dB signal-to-noise ratio. Their low-frequency temporal modulations (<500 Hz) were extracted in broad frequency bands, and raised to the power 2. The resulting envelopes were then used to modulate a white noise, and combined to produce the 'speech-envelope noise' stimuli. As a consequence, listeners were forced to identify speech using primarily temporal envelope cues. The results obtained with four normal-hearing listeners show small decrements in recognition performance of 1-15% when expanding the envelope of the speech stimuli presented in quiet. The results also show a small but consistent improvement in performance of 6-14% when expanding the envelope of the speech stimuli presented in noise. These results are consistent with those obtained by Fu and Shannon (J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 104 (1998) 2570-2577) with speech presented in quiet. They also suggest that the reduction in the modulation depth of the speech envelope caused by noise or reverberation could be compensated by expanding low-frequency temporal modulations.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Psychologie, Laboratoire de Psychologie Expérimentale, UMR CNRS 8581, Université René Descartes, Paris V, 28, Rue Serpente, 75006, Paris, France. christian.lorenzi@psycho.univ-paris5.fr
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lorenzi
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Berthommier
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Apoux
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bacri
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003463:Cues; D006801:Humans; D009622:Noise; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D012016:Reference Values; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors