Investigation of the role for noise canceling headphones to assist speech recall in noise

Abstract

There are many situations where it is necessary to hear, understand and be able to recall spoken information in less than ideal listening conditions. For example within an aircraft cabin where, despite improvements in modern passenger aircraft, noise generated from aircraft engines and aerodynamic airflow make it difficult to hear important on-board safety announcements such as the preflight safety brief. The benefits of headphones that incorporate active noise control in such environments are the focus of a series of research studies. In this paper, we discuss the techniques developed to investigate the use of active noise control headphones on the intelligibility and recall of speech generated outside the headsets in noise typical of that in a commercial aircraft cabin. The initial studies were directed towards assessing the effects on the recall for safety announcements. These studies have been extended to investigate if there are any benefits for those for which English is a second language. The results suggest that the use of active noise control headphones can minimize communication errors in a range of situations and this paper will discuss the methodology adopted and summarize the outcomes.