title: High sentence predictability increases the fluctuating masker benefit.
abstract: This study examined the effects of sentence predictability and masker modulation type on the fluctuating masker benefit (FMB), the improvement in speech reception thresholds resulting from fluctuations imposed on a steady-state masker. Square-wave modulations resulted in a larger FMB than sinusoidal ones. FMBs were also larger for high compared to low-predictability sentences, indicating that high sentence predictability increases the benefits from glimpses of the target speech in the dips of the fluctuating masker. In addition, sentence predictability appears to have a greater effect on sentence intelligibility when the masker is fluctuating than when it is steady-state.
authors.affiliation: UCL Speech, Hearing and Phonetic Sciences, 2 Wakefield Street, London WC1N 1PF, United Kingdom tim.schoof@northwestern.edu, stuart@phon.ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schoof
authors.affiliation: UCL Speech, Hearing and Phonetic Sciences, 2 Wakefield Street, London WC1N 1PF, United Kingdom tim.schoof@northwestern.edu, stuart@phon.ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Stuart
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rosen