A comparison of learning curves in natural and synthesized speech comprehension

This study examined the effect of listening practice on the ability of young adults to comprehend natural speech and DECtalk synthesized speech by having them perform a sentence verification task over a 5-day period. Results showed that response latencies of participants shortened in a similar fashion to sentences presented in both types of speech across the 5-day period, with latencies remaining significantly longer in response to DECtalk than to natural speech across the days. These results suggest that high-quality synthesized speech, such as DECtalk, can be useful in many human factors applications.