Acoustic characteristics of conversational and clear speech produced in quiet and in noise by older adults with hearing loss

Abstract

When communication occurs in noise or with hearing-impaired listeners, talkers often modify their speech. Speech produced in noise, or “Lombard speech,” and speech produced by talkers instructed to speak as though their communication partner has a hearing loss, or “clear speech,” usually feature a reduced speaking rate and a higher and more variable voice pitch than quiet and/or conversational-style speech. Both styles are also generally more intelligible than quiet/conversational speech. Although clear speech in particular is meant to accommodate the needs of listeners with hearing loss, most of the talkers in previous studies have been young adults with normal hearing. We hypothesize that talkers with hearing loss, having experience as listeners with hearing loss, would better know what listeners with hearing loss need than talkers with normal hearing, and that the magnitude of the acoustic differences would change accordingly. In the present study, talkers aged 65–85 years with bilateral mild-to-moderately severe sloping sensorineural hearing loss were recorded reading sentences in quiet and in the presence of white noise under instructions to speak conversationally and then clearly. Acoustic differences between the styles for these talkers will be compared to those observed previously in young normal-hearing adults using the same recording protocol.