Selecting an Intelligibility Test for Communication System Evaluation
Carl E. Williams, Michael H. L. Hecker · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1967
A variety of intelligibility tests are available for evaluating speech-communication systems. These tests have certain advantages and limitations that must be considered in terms of the particular requirements of a given evaluation task. Because any single test provides only some of the desirable features found among all tests, the selection of a test is often a compromise. To facilitate an optimal selection, it is suggested that four generalized requirements be rank ordered according to their importance in a given evaluation task: (a) the need to diagnose specific system shortcomings, (b) the need to discriminate among highly intelligible systems. (c) the need to use speech material that provides a representative sampling of the sounds occurring in everyday speech, and (d) the need for rapid test administration and scoring. Suggestions are made for the development of a new test that would hopefully incorporate more desirable features and thus reduce the present restrictions encountered in the selection of a test.