Intelligibility of tracheoesophageal speech in noise

The purpose of this investigation is to determine the extent to which background noise negatively impacts the intelligibility of tracheoesophageal (TE) speech. Four male TE speakers provided speech samples that were recorded in quiet and in noise conditions. The listener/subjects occupied a sound-treated booth and were presented with two tasks. In Task 1, the subjects were required to transcribe TE speech stimuli recorded in quiet. In Task 2, the subjects were required to transcribe TE speech stimuli recorded in noise. Repeated measures 2 x 4 factorial analyses of variance were calculated for the dataset. The results of the statistical analysis revealed that the TE speech produced in quiet was significantly more intelligible to the listeners than the TE speech produced in noise for three of the four TE speakers. Furthermore, the results seem to support the hypothesis that the activation of a Lombard effect in TE speakers may detract from their overall speech intelligibility.