Importance of low frequency hearing for spatial release from masking

Abstract

Listeners tend to achieve better speech understanding when the masking talker(s) are spatially separated from the target talker; an effect known as spatial release from masking. Here, we present data on spatial release from masking experiment where the target and maskers are high pass filtered with a three frequency audiometric pure-tone threshold equal to 20 dB HL. Young normal hearing listeners were presented with CRM sentences in anechoic and reverberant listening environments. The target speech was presented simultaneously with two maskers that were either colocated (0° azimuth) or symmetrically separated from the target in azimuth ( ±15°). Reverberant listening environments were simulated using techniques described in Zahorik (2009) and reverberation times (T60) of 1s and 2s were used. Preliminary results indicate that the amount of release from masking reduced for filtered speech and this reduction was greater for reverberant listening environments as compared to anechoic environment.