Abstract
In competing speech, recognition of target speech may be limited by the number and characteristics of maskers, which produce energetic, envelope, and/or informational masking. In this study, speech recognition thresholds (SRTs) were measured with one, two, or four maskers. The target and masker sex was the same or different, and SRTs were measured with time-forward or time-reversed maskers. SRTs were significantly affected by target-masker sex differences with time-forward maskers, but not with time-reversed maskers. The multi-masker penalty was much greater with time-reversed maskers than with time-forward maskers when there were more than two talkers.
Highlights
Segregating target from masker speech may be limited by energetic, envelope, and/or informational masking (e.g., Brungart, 2001; Brungart et al, 2001; Stone and Canavan, 2016)
We hypothesized that speech recognition thresholds (SRTs) would worsen as the number of maskers increased and that listeners would benefit from target-masker sex differences, regardless of masker intelligibility
The present data are consistent with the hypothesis that SRTs would worsen as the number of talkers increased, regardless of masker intelligibility [Fig. 2(A)]
Summary
Segregating target from masker speech may be limited by energetic, envelope, and/or informational masking (e.g., Brungart, 2001; Brungart et al, 2001; Stone and Canavan, 2016). The effects of energetic, envelope, and informational masking may increase with the number of competing talkers (the “multi-masker penalty” described by Durlach, 2006). NH listeners may be able to hear some words in competing speech, increasing the number of talkers may negatively affect listeners’ ability to distinguish target from masker words, especially when the target and masker have the same sex This uncertainty likely increases the effect of informational masking (Brungart et al, 2001; Durlach et al, 2003; Kidd et al, 2016). Asa.scitation.org/journal/jel cues and time-reversed speech were combined, the mean MR increased to 19.9 dB These effects may interact with the number of maskers, as the amount of informational masking may increase with the number of maskers up to a certain threshold (Durlach, 2006). We hypothesized that SRTs would worsen as the number of maskers increased and that listeners would benefit from target-masker sex differences, regardless of masker intelligibility
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