title: Characterization of speech understanding in various types of noise.
abstract: This study examined (1) the effects of noise on speech understanding and (2) whether performance in real-life noises could be predicted based on performance in steady-state speech-spectrum-shaped noise. The noise conditions included a steady-state speech-spectrum-shaped noise and six types of real-life noise. Thirty normal-hearing adults were tested using sentence materials from the Cantonese Hearing In Noise Test (CHINT). To achieve the first aim, the performance-intensity function slopes in these noise conditions were estimated and compared. Variations in performance-intensity function slopes were attributed to differences in the amount of amplitude fluctuations and the presence of competing background speech. How well the data obtained in real-life noises fit the performance-intensity functions obtained in steady-state speech-spectrum-shaped noises was examined for the second aim of the study. Four out of six types of noise yielded performance-intensity function slopes similar to that in steady-state speech-spectrum-shaped noise. After accounting for individual differences in sentence reception threshold (SRT) and the offset between the signal-to-noise ratio for 50% intelligibility across different types of noise, performance in steady-state speech-spectrum-shaped noise was found to predict well the performance in most of the real-life noise conditions.
authors.affiliation: University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong. llnwong@hku.hk
authors.forename: Lena L N
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Elaine H N
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.forename: Sigfrid D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Soli
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D032882:Comprehension; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects*; D009624:Noise, Transportation / Q000009:adverse effects; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013065:Speech Intelligibility; D013067:Speech Perception; D013069:Speech Reception Threshold Test; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult