The effect of the speaker gender on speech intelligibility in normal-hearing subjects with simulated high frequency hearing loss.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether speaker gender affects speech discrimination scores, in normal hearing and simulated high frequency hearing loss situations.


METHODS
Listeners were twenty normal volunteers. The speech stimuli were eight phonetically balanced monosyllabic word lists, uttered by a male and a female speakers. These lists were low-pass filtered at 1500, 2500 and 3500 Hz's to represent high frequency hearing loss. To obtain speech discrimination scores, the subjects listened to each of the eight lists in a different filtering and talker conditions in a randomized order. For statistical analysis, Mann-Whitney U test was used.


RESULTS
In normal hearing situation, the scores obtained by male and female speeches, were similar (p=0.60). On the contrary, statistically significant differences were observed in all of the three high frequency hearing loss situations (p<0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
Female speech is significantly more difficult to discriminate than male speech in normal-hearing subjects with simulated high frequency hearing loss and probably in patients with high frequency hearing loss.
Kiliç
M A
MA
Department of Otolaryngology, Medical School, Sütçü Imam University, Kahramanmaras, Turkey. makilic@doruk.net.tr
Ogüt
F
F
D000328:Adult; D001302:Audiometry, Speech / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006316:Hearing Loss, High-Frequency / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D013060:Speech; D013063:Speech Discrimination Tests; D013065:Speech Intelligibility; D013069:Speech Reception Threshold Test