Effects of spatial asymmetry and voice-gender differences between talkers on spatial release from masking in
Yonghee Oh1, Josephine Kinder1, Phillip Friggle1
1Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and Communicative Disorders, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, USAyonghee.oh@louisville.edu, josephine.kinder@louisville.edu, phillip.friggle@louisville.edu, caroline.cuthbertson@louisville.edu.
Abstract:
This study investigated how a listener's spatial release from masking (SRM) performance is affected by spatial asymmetry and voice-gender differences between talkers in multi-talker listening situations. The amounts of SRM were measured with symmetric and asymmetric (toward the right or left) masker configurations in same-gender and different-gender target-masker conditions. The results showed that the SRM was co-varied by talkers' voice-gender differences and spatial asymmetry cues: maximized in the same-gender and asymmetrical target-maskers condition and minimized in the different-gender and symmetrical target-maskers condition. Those findings suggest that the talkers' asymmetry and voice-gender differences could contribute to the variation in SRM independently.
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