Perception of American-English in noise by Greek listeners

Abstract

This study examined the ability of Greek listeners to understand American-English in noise. The speech perception in noise (SPIN) test was administered at 75 dB SPL in the presence of babble noise to 23 Greek and 10 American listeners with normal hearing. The Greek listeners had studied English for an average of 8 yr and lived in the U.S. for an average of 2.5 yr. Noise levels were chosen in 3-db steps to encompass the range from 20% to 90% correct performance. At each noise level, 50 new sentences were presented and the percent correct for 25 high- and 25 low-predictability sentences was measured. Results show (1) the slope of the psychometric functions in terms of Z score per decibel of speech-to-noise ratio was steeper for the native than the Greek listeners, (2) the native listeners could obtain 50% correct performance at significantly higher noise levels (about 3 dB) than the Greek listeners, (3) both groups performed significantly better on the high-predictability sentences than on the low-predictability sentences, and (4) the difference in tolerable noise levels (levels yielding 50% correct) between the high- and low-predictability sentences was the same for both groups. These results corroborate earlier studies with other non-native languages [e.g., Florentine, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Suppl. 1 77, S106 (1985)].