Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Speech intelligibility and localization in a multi-source environment.

M L Hawley1, R Y Litovsky, H S Colburn

  • 1Hearing Research Center, Boston University, Massachusetts 02215, USA. MLH@bu.edu

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
|June 25, 1999
PubMed
Summary

Spatially separating target speech from competing speech significantly improves intelligibility and localization. Binaural listening offers substantial benefits, especially in complex acoustic environments for speech perception.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Language and executive functioning in young adults with Down syndrome.

Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR·2021
Same author

Inhibition shapes response selectivity in the inferior colliculus by gain modulation.

Frontiers in neural circuits·2012
Same author

Neural correlates of the precedence effect in the inferior colliculus: effect of localization cues.

Journal of neurophysiology·2002
Same author

Rate and timing cues associated with the cochlear amplifier: level discrimination based on monaural cross-frequency coincidence detection.

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America·2001
Same author

Evaluating auditory performance limits: i. one-parameter discrimination using a computational model for the auditory nerve.

Neural computation·2001
Same author

Evaluating auditory performance limits: II. One-parameter discrimination with random-level variation.

Neural computation·2001

Area of Science:

  • Auditory perception
  • Acoustic signal processing
  • Human factors in acoustics

Background:

  • Natural environments contain interfering sounds impacting auditory information extraction.
  • Speech intelligibility and localization are crucial for listeners in complex acoustic scenes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate speech intelligibility and localization in normal-hearing listeners with competing speech.
  • To compare performance in actual versus virtual sound fields under different listening conditions.

Main Methods:

  • Experiments involved presenting target and competing sentences in various spatial configurations.
  • Speech intelligibility and source identification were measured in actual and virtual sound fields.
  • Binaural and monaural listening conditions were tested in the virtual sound field.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • Spatial separation of target and competing speech significantly improved intelligibility.
  • Speech intelligibility was similar in actual and virtual sound fields (binaural).
  • Localization performance was better in actual sound fields than virtual ones, but good binaurally even with multiple competitors.

Conclusions:

  • Spatial separation is key for enhancing speech intelligibility and localization in noisy environments.
  • Binaural hearing provides significant advantages, though monaural listening can suffice in some scenarios.
  • Localization ability did not limit speech intelligibility performance in these experiments.