Comparative Intelligibility of Monosyllabic Word Lists

Abstract

Two experiments are reported in which the underwater intelligibility scores of four standard word lists were compared. As would be expected, closed-set lists produced higher scores than open-ended tests. Alternate forms of two tests were compared and the results indicated that lists which are equated for difficulty in normal environments were also sufficiently equated for underwater use. A preliminary analysis of phoneme type distortion was derived from one closed-set test, and appeared to demonstrate that, for these experiments, the most common type of phoneme error was in specification of place of production, with fricative phonemes most affected.