Relationship Between Speech Intelligibility and Speech Comprehension in Babble Noise.

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Bibliographic Details
Title:	Relationship Between Speech Intelligibility and Speech Comprehension in Babble Noise.
Authors:	Fontan, Lionel¹ fontan.lionel@gmail.com, Tardieu, Julien¹, Gaillard, Pascal¹, Woisard, Virginie^1,2, Ruiz, Robert³
Source:	Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research. Jun2015, Vol. 58 Issue 3, p977-986. 10p. 1 Color Photograph, 2 Charts, 4 Graphs.
Subject Terms:	Listening comprehension, Intelligibility of speech, Speech perception, Graduate students, Speech evaluation, Undergraduates, *Experimental design, Noise, Probability theory, Wave analysis, Sound spectrography, Descriptive statistics
Geographic Terms:	France
Abstract:	Purpose: The authors investigated the relationship between the intelligibility and comprehension of speech presented in babble noise. Method: Forty participants listened to French imperative sentences (commands for moving objects) in a multitalker babble background for which intensity was experimentally controlled. Participants were instructed to transcribe what they heard and obey the commands in an interactive environment set up for this purpose. The former test provided intelligibility scores and the latter provided comprehension scores. Results: Collected data revealed a globally weak correlation between intelligibility and comprehension scores (r = .35, p < .001). The discrepancy tended to grow as noise level increased. An analysis of standard deviations showed that variability in comprehension scores increased linearly with noise level, whereas higher variability in intelligibility scores was found for moderate noise level conditions. Conclusion: These results support the hypothesis that intelligibility scores are poor predictors of listeners' comprehension in real communication situations. Intelligibility and comprehension scores appear to provide different insights, the first measure being centered on speech signal transfer and the second on communicative performance. Both theoretical and practical implications for the use of speech intelligibility tests as indicators of speakers' performances are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Database:	Education Research Complete

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Abstract:	Purpose: The authors investigated the relationship between the intelligibility and comprehension of speech presented in babble noise. Method: Forty participants listened to French imperative sentences (commands for moving objects) in a multitalker babble background for which intensity was experimentally controlled. Participants were instructed to transcribe what they heard and obey the commands in an interactive environment set up for this purpose. The former test provided intelligibility scores and the latter provided comprehension scores. Results: Collected data revealed a globally weak correlation between intelligibility and comprehension scores (r = .35, p < .001). The discrepancy tended to grow as noise level increased. An analysis of standard deviations showed that variability in comprehension scores increased linearly with noise level, whereas higher variability in intelligibility scores was found for moderate noise level conditions. Conclusion: These results support the hypothesis that intelligibility scores are poor predictors of listeners' comprehension in real communication situations. Intelligibility and comprehension scores appear to provide different insights, the first measure being centered on speech signal transfer and the second on communicative performance. Both theoretical and practical implications for the use of speech intelligibility tests as indicators of speakers' performances are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
ISSN:	10924388
DOI:	10.1044/2015_JSLHR-H-13-0335