Acoustic-phonetic masking in Spanish vowel recognition by native English- and Spanish-speaking subjects

We report results for a psycho-acoustic experiment examining Spanish vowel ([a,e,i,o,u]). recognition in speech-shaped noise (SSN) and background babble (1-16 talkers) by two listening groups: native Spanish speakers (SP group) and native English speakers (EN group). The motivation for the current study is to investigate acoustic-phonetic and informational masking (APM and IM, respectively) effects (1) on segment/phoneme recognition, and (2) by participants who do not speak the language of the target or masker (as well as native speakers of Spanish) in order to disambiguate the effects of APM and IM. For the tests, background noise, both SSN and background babble, were presented at three signal-to-noise ratios (at 0, -6, and -12 dB) while a target containing one of the five Spanish vowels was presented in the syllables [da, de, di, do, du]. Inter-group differences in response accuracy point to significant effects of APM as listening conditions erode, and minimal effects due to higher-order factors based on masker meaningfulness, semantic content, and language familiarity.