Perceptual features for normal listeners' phoneme recognition in a reverberant lecture hall

Johnson et al (1988) found that normal-hearing listeners' consonant recognition scores on a nonsense syllable test were significantly better when they were seated within versus beyond the critical distance of a typical lecture hall. The present study used a Sequential Information Analysis (SINFA) to document a priori perceptual features for Johnson et al's subjects' confusion errors to the initial and medial consonant portions of the stimuli. The features and the percent of information transmitted for them differed as a function of consonant position in the stimulus and whether the subjects were seated within or beyond the critical distance of the room. Generally, more information was transmitted within rather than beyond the critical distance for both initial and medial consonants. However, less information was transmitted for features for the medial than for the initial consonant position. Beyond the critical distance, high-frequency features (e.g., sibilant) were transmitted somewhat better than those based more on low-frequency energy (e.g., voicing). Place of articulation features were not transmitted as well for the initial as for the medial position and they suffered in both positions as distance increased. The effects of reverberation on the subjects' perception are discussed and compared to results of other studies.