Investigation on Chinese speech reception threshold of the elderly in noise and reverberation

Abstract

The elderly is more vulnerable to the detrimental effects of noise and reverberation. In the study, five simulated binaural room impulse responses with different reverberation time (RT) were convolved with test speech signals and background noise. Speech reception threshold (SRT) test was conducted on 22 elderly with different hearing levels (HLs) under different RT and background noise level (BNL) conditions. The results show that the SRT increases with the increase of age and deterioration of HL. The elderly have higher SRT than young adults. There is a high linear correlation between SRT and RT in different age groups and HL groups. Under 40 dBA and 55 dBA BNL conditions, the slope of linear fitting relationship between SRT and RT increases with the increase of age, and increases with the increase of pure tone average auditory. It also shows that the difference between different groups increases with the increase of RT. Under the same RT condition, the SRT in 40 dBA BNL is higher than that in 55 dBA BNL. However, the actual needed speech sound pressure level in 40 dBA BNL to obtain the same speech intelligibility is lower than that in 55 dBA BNL. It is more beneficial to improve the speech intelligibility of the elderly under a lower BNL condition with a sufficient sound pressure level. The architects should take reasonable acoustical measures to reduce the BNL and RT to improve the speech communication of the elderly in rooms.