Cargando…

The Effect of Breathy Vocal Quality on Speech Intelligibility and Listening Effort in Background Noise

Speech perception is challenging under adverse conditions. However, there is limited evidence regarding how multiple adverse conditions affect speech perception. The present study investigated two conditions that are frequently encountered in real-life communication: background noise and breathy voc...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Shen, Jing, Heller Murray, Elizabeth, Kulick, Erin R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10566269/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37817666
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/23312165231206925
_version_ 1785118887476461568
author Shen, Jing
Heller Murray, Elizabeth
Kulick, Erin R.
author_facet Shen, Jing
Heller Murray, Elizabeth
Kulick, Erin R.
author_sort Shen, Jing
collection PubMed
description Speech perception is challenging under adverse conditions. However, there is limited evidence regarding how multiple adverse conditions affect speech perception. The present study investigated two conditions that are frequently encountered in real-life communication: background noise and breathy vocal quality. The study first examined the effects of background noise and breathiness on speech perception as measured by intelligibility. Secondly, the study tested the hypothesis that both noise and breathiness affect listening effort, as indicated by linear and nonlinear changes in pupil dilation. Low-context sentences were resynthesized to create three levels of breathiness (original, mild-moderate, and severe). The sentences were presented in a fluctuating nonspeech noise with two signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of −5 dB (favorable) and −9 dB (adverse) SNR. Speech intelligibility and pupil dilation data were collected from young listeners with normal hearing thresholds. The results demonstrated that a breathy vocal quality presented in noise negatively affected speech intelligibility, with the degree of breathiness playing a critical role. Listening effort, as measured by the magnitude of pupil dilation, showed significant effects with both severe and mild-moderate breathy voices that were independent of noise level. The findings contributed to the literature by demonstrating the impact of vocal quality on the perception of speech in noise. They also highlighted the complex dynamics between overall task demand and processing resources in understanding the combined impact of multiple adverse conditions.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10566269
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher SAGE Publications
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-105662692023-10-12 The Effect of Breathy Vocal Quality on Speech Intelligibility and Listening Effort in Background Noise Shen, Jing Heller Murray, Elizabeth Kulick, Erin R. Trends Hear (S1) Original Article Speech perception is challenging under adverse conditions. However, there is limited evidence regarding how multiple adverse conditions affect speech perception. The present study investigated two conditions that are frequently encountered in real-life communication: background noise and breathy vocal quality. The study first examined the effects of background noise and breathiness on speech perception as measured by intelligibility. Secondly, the study tested the hypothesis that both noise and breathiness affect listening effort, as indicated by linear and nonlinear changes in pupil dilation. Low-context sentences were resynthesized to create three levels of breathiness (original, mild-moderate, and severe). The sentences were presented in a fluctuating nonspeech noise with two signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of −5 dB (favorable) and −9 dB (adverse) SNR. Speech intelligibility and pupil dilation data were collected from young listeners with normal hearing thresholds. The results demonstrated that a breathy vocal quality presented in noise negatively affected speech intelligibility, with the degree of breathiness playing a critical role. Listening effort, as measured by the magnitude of pupil dilation, showed significant effects with both severe and mild-moderate breathy voices that were independent of noise level. The findings contributed to the literature by demonstrating the impact of vocal quality on the perception of speech in noise. They also highlighted the complex dynamics between overall task demand and processing resources in understanding the combined impact of multiple adverse conditions. SAGE Publications 2023-10-11 /pmc/articles/PMC10566269/ /pubmed/37817666 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/23312165231206925 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle (S1) Original Article
Shen, Jing
Heller Murray, Elizabeth
Kulick, Erin R.
The Effect of Breathy Vocal Quality on Speech Intelligibility and Listening Effort in Background Noise
title The Effect of Breathy Vocal Quality on Speech Intelligibility and Listening Effort in Background Noise
title_full The Effect of Breathy Vocal Quality on Speech Intelligibility and Listening Effort in Background Noise
title_fullStr The Effect of Breathy Vocal Quality on Speech Intelligibility and Listening Effort in Background Noise
title_full_unstemmed The Effect of Breathy Vocal Quality on Speech Intelligibility and Listening Effort in Background Noise
title_short The Effect of Breathy Vocal Quality on Speech Intelligibility and Listening Effort in Background Noise
title_sort effect of breathy vocal quality on speech intelligibility and listening effort in background noise
topic (S1) Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10566269/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37817666
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/23312165231206925
work_keys_str_mv AT shenjing theeffectofbreathyvocalqualityonspeechintelligibilityandlisteningeffortinbackgroundnoise
AT hellermurrayelizabeth theeffectofbreathyvocalqualityonspeechintelligibilityandlisteningeffortinbackgroundnoise
AT kulickerinr theeffectofbreathyvocalqualityonspeechintelligibilityandlisteningeffortinbackgroundnoise
AT shenjing effectofbreathyvocalqualityonspeechintelligibilityandlisteningeffortinbackgroundnoise
AT hellermurrayelizabeth effectofbreathyvocalqualityonspeechintelligibilityandlisteningeffortinbackgroundnoise
AT kulickerinr effectofbreathyvocalqualityonspeechintelligibilityandlisteningeffortinbackgroundnoise