title: Speech recognition against harmonic and inharmonic complexes: spectral dips and periodicity.
abstract: Speech recognition in a complex masker usually benefits from masker harmonicity, but there are several factors at work. The present study focused on two of them, glimpsing spectrally in between masker partials and periodicity within individual frequency channels. Using both a theoretical and an experimental approach, it is demonstrated that when inharmonic complexes are generated by jittering partials from their harmonic positions, there are better opportunities for spectral glimpsing in inharmonic than in harmonic maskers, and this difference is enhanced as fundamental frequency (F0) increases. As a result, measurements of masking level difference between the two maskers can be reduced, particularly at higher F0s. Using inharmonic maskers that offer similar glimpsing opportunity to harmonic maskers, it was found that the masking level difference between the two maskers varied little with F0, was influenced by periodicity of the first four partials, and could occur in low-, mid-, or high-frequency regions. Overall, the present results suggested that both spectral glimpsing and periodicity contribute to speech recognition under masking by harmonic complexes, and these effects seem independent from one another.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 818 Ross Research Building, 720 Rutland Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland 21205.
authors.forename: Mickael L D
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Deroche
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Tower Building, Park Place, Cardiff, CF10 3AT, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: John F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Culling
authors.affiliation: Auditory Prostheses and Perception Laboratory, Boys Town National Research Hospital, 555 N 30th Street, Omaha, Nebraska 68131.
authors.forename: Monita
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chatterjee
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 818 Ross Research Building, 720 Rutland Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland 21205.
authors.forename: Charles J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Limb
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D010507:Periodicity; D010700:Phonetics; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013065:Speech Intelligibility; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult