The spatial unmasking of speech: evidence for better-ear listening

Speech reception thresholds (SRTs) were measured for target speech presented concurrently with interfering speech (spoken by a different speaker). In experiment 1, the target and interferer were divided spectrally into high- and low-frequency bands and presented over headphones in three conditions: monaural, dichotic (target and interferer to different ears), and swapped (the low-frequency target band and the high-frequency interferer band were presented to one ear, while the high-frequency target band and the low-frequency interferer band were presented to the other ear). SRTs were highest in the monaural condition and lowest in the dichotic condition; SRTs in the swapped condition were intermediate. In experiment 2, two new conditions were devised such that one target band was presented in isolation to one ear while the other band was presented at the other ear with the interferer. The pattern of SRTs observed in experiment 2 suggests that performance in the swapped condition reflects the intelligibility of the target frequency bands at just one ear; the auditory system appears unable to exploit advantageous target-to-interferer ratios at different ears when segregating target speech from a competing speech interferer.