Listening benefits in speech-in-speech recognition are altered under reverberant conditions

In speech-in-speech recognition, listeners' performance improves when spatial and linguistic properties of background and target speech differ. However, it is unclear if these benefits interact or whether they persist under reverberant conditions typical of indoor listening. To address these issues, these benefits were tested together in the presence and absence of reverberation. Results demonstrate that, in the anechoic condition, both spatial and linguistic benefits are obtained but they do not constrain each other. Under reverberation, only the spatial benefit was obtained. This demonstrates the critical need to consider reverberation effects in order to fully characterize the challenges of speech-in-speech listening.