On Detectable and Meaningful Speech-Intelligibility Benefits

The most important parameter that affects the ability to hear and understand speech in the presence of background noise is the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Despite decades of research in speech intelligibility, it is not currently known how much improvement in SNR is needed to provide a meaningful benefit to someone. We propose that the underlying psychophysical basis to a meaningful benefit should be the just noticeable difference (JND) for SNR. The SNR JND was measured in a series of experiments using both adaptive and fixed-level procedures across participants of varying hearing ability. The results showed an average SNR JND of approximately 3 dB for sentences in same-spectrum noise. The role of the stimulus and link to intelligibility was examined by measuring speech-intelligibility psychometric functions and comparing the intelligibility JND estimated from those functions with measured SNR JNDs. Several experiments were then conducted to establish a just meaningful difference (JMD) for SNR. SNR changes that could induce intervention-seeking behaviour for an individual were measured with subjective scaling and report, using the same stimuli as the SNR JND experiment as pre- and post-benefit examples. The results across different rating and willingness-to-change tasks showed that the mean ratings increased near linearly with a change in SNR, but a change of at least 6 dB was necessary to reliably motivate participants to seek intervention. The magnitude of the JNDs and JMDs for speech-intelligibility benefits measured here suggest a gap between what is achievable and what is meaningful.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2016

Erschienen:

2016

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:894

Enthalten in:

Advances in experimental medicine and biology - 894(2016) vom: 15., Seite 447-455

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Whitmer, William M [VerfasserIn]
McShefferty, David [VerfasserIn]
Akeroyd, Michael A [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Hearing impairment
Journal Article
Just-noticeable difference
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Signal-to-noise ratio
Speech intelligibility

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 06.09.2016

Date Revised 29.01.2022

published: Print

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1007/978-3-319-25474-6_47

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM259424889