title: Effects of speech signal content and speaker gender on acceptance of noise in listeners with normal hearing.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this research was to determine if the content and/or speaker gender of a running speech sample affected the acceptance of background noise within a participant.
  
  
  METHODS
  A male and a female recording of the Arizona Travelogue (Cosmos Inc.) and the ipsilateral competing message (ICM) from the synthetic sentence identification with ICM were created and used as the experimental speech signals. Two acceptable noise level measurements were obtained and averaged for each condition. Twenty-one participants rated interest level in the speech sample for each condition.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty-three listeners with normal hearing participated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Interest level was significantly greater for the ICM than the Arizona Travelogue speech samples, and was significantly greater for female samples. Neither the content of the sample nor the gender of the speaker significantly affected the most comfortable level or the acceptable noise level.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Findings suggest that the acceptable noise level can be measured using various types of speech signals for normal-hearing listeners.
authors.affiliation: Department of Audiology & Speech Pathology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, 578 South Stadium Hall, Knoxville, TN 37996-0740, USA. pplyler@utk.edu
authors.forename: Patrick N
authors.initials: PN
authors.lastname: Plyler
authors.forename: Lynzee N
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Alworth
authors.forename: Tabitha P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Rossini
authors.forename: Kathryn E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Mapes
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000502:physiology*; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects*; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D012737:Sex Factors; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D013067:Speech Perception; D055815:Young Adult