Van Engen, K. J. & Bradlow, A. R. (2007). Sentence recognition in native- and foreign-language multi-talker background noise. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 121(1), 519 – 526.
Presentation: Sally
Summary: Roger
Previous studies on speech-in-noise perception have shown that speech signal features have different resistance levels to degradation from noise. The present paper investigated how multi-talker babble, varying signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), and different languages in the background noise affect the perception of English sentences. In the experiment, the target native-accented English sentences were embedded in English two- and six-talker babbles and similarly in Mandarin two- and six-talker babbles at SNRs of +5, 0, and -5 dB, which gave rise to 12 combinations (2 languages × 2 talker babbles × 3 SNRs). Sixty-six native English speakers were then asked to write down what they heard in the experiment. Results showed that overall higher SNRs yield better target sentence perception in all conditions. In agreement with previous studies, sentence perception is better in two-talker noise as opposed to six-talker noise. In term of the language of the noise, perception is better in Mandarin than in English noise in two-talker babble at SNRs of 0 and -5 dB. The first two findings are easy to interpret. The third finding has shown that the languages of interfering noise can affect the intelligibility of the target speech. The high density of noise in the six-talker babble seems to eliminate any information (linguistic) masking differences. In other words, the benefit of linguistic differentiation between the target and the noise which is accessible in the two-talker babble is overthrown in the six-talker babble. As for how linguistic differentiation facilitates the perception, several reasons, such as lexical effect, different phoneme inventories and syllable structures, prosodic factors, are suggested by the authors. However, exactly what factors or combinations of factors are taking effect remains undetermined and further researches are required.
Previous studies on speech-in-noise perception have shown that speech signal features have different resistance levels to degradation from noise. The present paper investigated how multi-talker babble, varying signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), and different languages in the background noise affect the perception of English sentences. In the experiment, the target native-accented English sentences were embedded in English two- and six-talker babbles and similarly in Mandarin two- and six-talker babbles at SNRs of +5, 0, and -5 dB, which gave rise to 12 combinations (2 languages × 2 talker babbles × 3 SNRs). Sixty-six native English speakers were then asked to write down what they heard in the experiment. Results showed that overall higher SNRs yield better target sentence perception in all conditions. In agreement with previous studies, sentence perception is better in two-talker noise as opposed to six-talker noise. In term of the language of the noise, perception is better in Mandarin than in English noise in two-talker babble at SNRs of 0 and -5 dB. The first two findings are easy to interpret. The third finding has shown that the languages of interfering noise can affect the intelligibility of the target speech. The high density of noise in the six-talker babble seems to eliminate any information (linguistic) masking differences. In other words, the benefit of linguistic differentiation between the target and the noise which is accessible in the two-talker babble is overthrown in the six-talker babble. As for how linguistic differentiation facilitates the perception, several reasons, such as lexical effect, different phoneme inventories and syllable structures, prosodic factors, are suggested by the authors. However, exactly what factors or combinations of factors are taking effect remains undetermined and further researches are required.
