[Context effects in speech recognition of sentences]

Context plays an important role in speech recognition. The goal of the present study was to quantify context effects in speech recognition using the Basle Sentence Understanding Test. This test consists of two types of sentences according to the amount of contextual information: they contain sentences with highly predictable (HP) final words and sentences with low predictable (LP) final words. The effect of different contextual situations on speech recognition was investigated in this study using the Basle Sentence Understanding Test. The speech recognition threshold of HP sentences was found to be 6 dB lower than that of LP sentences. However, contextual effects can only be demonstrated if the context is clearly understandable. In the Basle Sentence Understanding Test, this is achieved by special masking techniques. The significance of the recognition of the contextual part of the sentence with respect to the recognition of the whole sentence is different in HP and LP sentences.