Factors influencing the detection and intelligibility of speech in competing message environments
Mark A. Ericson, Robert S. Bolia, W. Todd Nelson · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1998
While monitoring multiple conversations, a listener often needs to know not only what was said but who said what to whom. An exploratory investigation into these questions involved eight talkers saying similar, simultaneous messages. Four male and four female talkers speaking call sign phrases and logical phrases were digitally recorded. All phrases were adjusted in overall gain to have the same average power and onset time. Between one and seven competing messages were played back over loudspeakers in an anechoic chamber. Thereby, angular separation between the speech signal and speech babble was also a controlled factor. Physical attributes of the eight talkers’ speech were analyzed using the Multi-Dimensional Voice Program from Kay Elemetrics. Nineteen acoustic attributes of the talkers’ voice samples were quantified. Voice samples were analyzed during sustained phonation and continuous speech conditions. A correlational analysis was used to investigate which aspects of the talkers’ speech facilitate detection and intelligibility against a cacophony of competing voices. The salient features of the eight talkers’ voice samples will be discussed.