Affect Speech Intelligibility Research Articles

Experimental Study of the Influence of Occupants on Speech Intelligibility in an Automotive Cabin

Adding occupants to an enclosed space often leads to perceptible changes in the sound field and, therefore, speech intelligibility; however, this issue has not yet been examined in automotive cabins. This study investigated the effect of occupants in an automotive cabin on SI. Binaural room impulse responses (BRIRs) were measured in an automotive cabin with an artificial mouth and dummy head under different speaker–listener position configurations and occupancy modes. Based on the measured BRIRs, the speech transmission index (STI) was determined, and subjective speech–reception thresholds (SRTs) in Mandarin Chinese were assessed. The results indicate that speech intelligibility mostly decreased slightly after adding additional occupants. In most cases, the occupants did not significantly affect speech intelligibility, with STI variations of no more than the just-noticeable difference and SRT variation within 1 dB. When the listener was in the back-right seat, the effect of the occupants on speech intelligibility could not be ignored, with STI variations of up to 0.07 and an SRT variation of 2 dB under different occupancy modes. In addition, the influence of front-row passengers on the speech intelligibility of rear-row listeners was extremely small, and vice versa. Furthermore, altering the distribution of occupants had an effect comparable to changing the number of occupants.

Influences of noise reduction on speech intelligibility, listening effort, and sound quality among adults with severe to profound hearing loss.

Noise reduction (NR) algorithms have been integrated into modern digital hearing aids to reduce noise annoyance and enhance speech intelligibility. This study aimed to evaluate the influences of a novel hearing aid NR algorithm on individuals with severe-to-profound hearing loss. Twenty-five participants with severe-to-profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss underwent three tests (speech intelligibility, listening effort, and subjective sound quality in noise) to investigate the influences of NR. All three tests were performed under three NR strength levels (Off, Moderate, and Strong) for both speech in noise program (SpiN) and speech in loud noise program (SpiLN), comprising six different hearing aid conditions. NR activation significantly reduced listening effort. Subjective sound quality assessments also exhibited benefits of activated NR in terms of noise suppression, listening comfort, satisfaction, and speech clarity. Individuals with severe-to-profound hearing loss still experienced advantages from NR technology in both listening effort measure and subjective sound quality assessments. Importantly, these benefits did not adversely affect speech intelligibility.

Assessment and Analysis of Reverberation Time in Hyder-Burks Arena at Tennessee Technological University

This study addresses the issue of long reverberation times in large-scale arenas, specifically the HyderBurks Arena (HBA) at Tennessee Technological University. HBA primarily hosts cattle shows and agricultural events. The current multi-speaker sound system in the facility ensures audibility, but the long reverberation time accumulates noise that impairs communication and causes dissatisfaction. The objectives of this work conducted as a student project in an undergraduate noise control class include measuring the reverberation time, analyzing the data, researching noise reduction methods, and proposing feasible plans that consider cost, achievability, and ease of implementation. The current reverberation time measured in the arena is approximately 2.313 seconds, posing challenges for speechapplications. The aim was to reduce this to a range of 1.32 to 1.02 seconds. The study employed a Larson Davis Sound Advisor 831C sound level meter to measure the reverberation time at various points in the arena. Despite low-frequency analysis challenges, critical frequencies affecting speech intelligibility were identified. The study also highlights potential issues with the arena’s sound system and the need for a synchronized, centralized speaker system. The assessment revealed that areas near the concrete walls without sound absorption have the maximum T60, indicating the need for treatment. Recommendations include ceiling treatment to reduce the reverberation time and enhance speech intelligibility. The proposed plan, considering cost-effectiveness and financial feasibility, aims to improve the atmosphere and experience for HBA users.

Factors affecting the speech intelligibility of children with hearing impairment

Background: Children with hearing impairment have difficulties affecting their ability to understand speech and general communication development. It is essential to understand the background of the factors affecting young children's speech intelligibility in the Pakistani setting. Objective: To explore the factors affecting speech intelligibility among children with hearing impairment. Methods: A total of n=107 individuals were selected for the 6-month study at GMT clinic, Siemens Hearing Clinic, Hearing and Speech Care Clinic, and RHS in Islamabad using non-probability convenience sampling. Children between the ages of 6 and 12 who had mild to profound sensorineural hearing loss and could express themselves at the phrase level met the inclusion criteria. Speech-impairing conditions and progressive or conductive hearing loss were included in the exclusion criteria. Using the Assessing Intelligibility Worksheet, data was collected, in which 17 utterances with 57 words spoken by the therapist participants were repeated and the responses were noted by the therapist. Multiple linear regression, descriptive statistics, and percentage distribution were all analyzed using SPSS 21. Results: A multiple regression model was run to predict intelligibility utterance from age, gender, type of hearing aid, technology of hearing aid, degrees of hearing loss, and talkativeness. This model significantly predicted speech intelligibility of hearing aid users {F (8, 98) = 42.905, p<0.001}. All variables cause 77.8% (Adj. R2=.778) variance in speech intelligibility of hearing aid users. Conclusion: The study concludes that there is a considerable impact of gender, the technology of hearing aids, degree of hearing loss, and talkativeness level on speech intelligibility while no significant impact of types of hearing aids concerning Behind the ear and receiver in the canal on children's speech intelligibility.

Validation of Camera Networks Used for the Assessment of Speech Movements

Abstract. The term speech sound disorder describes a range of speech difficulties in children that affect speech intelligibility. Differential diagnosis is difficult and reliant on access to validated and reliable measures. Technological advances aim to provide clinical access to measurements that have been identified as beneficial in diagnosing speech disorders. To generate objective measurements and, consequently, automatic scores, the output from multi-camera networks is required to produce quality results. The quality of photogrammetric results is usually expressed in terms of the precision and reliability of the network. Precision is determined at the design stage as a function of the geometry of the network. In this manuscript, we focus on the design of a photogrammetric camera network using three cameras. We adopted a similar workflow as Alsadika et al. (2012) and tested serval network configurations. As the distances from the camera stations to object points were fixed to 3500mm, only the horizontal and vertical placements of the cameras were varied. Horizontal angles were changed within an increment of 10º, and vertical angles were changed within an increment of 5º. The object space coordinates of GCPs for each camera configuration were assessed in terms of horizontal error ellipses and vertical precision. The best design was the maximum horizontal and vertical convergence angles of 90° and 30°. The existing camera network used to capture videos for speech assessment was approximately as good as the top third of tested designs. However, from a validation perspective, it can be concluded that the design is viable for continued use.

Evaluating the Effects of Building Characteristics of Worship Auditoriums on Speech Intelligibility in Makurdi Metropolis

To enjoy the comfort of the indoor environment of any enclosed space, it is important to have a reasonable measure of understanding of any spoken word in the room. In line with the above this study assessed the characteristics of worship auditoriums with regards to speech intelligibility in Makurdi metropolis with the view to identifying building characteristics that affect speech intelligibility worship auditoriums. The study was carried out through the employment of walkthrough survey and physical observation; a well structured checklist was employed for the study. Measurements of lengths, widths and heights were carried out, from which the room volume was obtained to have an insight of the space under consideration. The auditoriums of ten worship centres in Makurdi Metropolis were studied. The findings that showed all the auditoriums were rectangular in shape. It was found that there was use of inappropriate application of materials for surface finishes in the auditoriums. In terms of room volume, it was found that G recorded the highest volume with 17064.00m3 while E recorded the lowest volume of 756.00m3 . The mean volume of the auditoriums was calculated to be 517.64m3 , the Standard Deviation (SD) was 4733.44 and the Coefficient of Variation (CV) was found to be 81.36%. The study recommended that proper selection and application of surface finish materials be ensured during construction of worship centres. Also, that acoustic treatment is applied in auditoriums where defects are identified, with the aim of effectively enhancing speech intelligibility in worship auditoriums in Makurdi Metropolis.

How does voice familiarity affect speech intelligibility?

People often face the challenge of understanding speech when other sounds are present ("speech-in-noise perception")—which involves a variety of cognitive processes, such as attention and prior knowledge. We have consistently found that familiarity with a person’s voice improves the ability to understand speech-in-noise, using both naturally familiar (e.g., friends and partners) and lab-trained voices. In this talk, I will describe experiments in which we manipulated voice acoustics (such as fundamental frequency and formant spacing). For example, we have measured the smallest deviations in acoustics that listeners can discriminate for familiar and unfamiliar voices, and have examined how manipulations to voice acoustics affect voice recognition and speech intelligibility for familiar voices. This work has provided insights into the processes underlying the familiar-voice intelligibility benefit—for example, by contrasting explanations based on predictions of voice acoustics with those involving cognitive demands. I will discuss the implications of our findings for theories of speech perception, and the implications for populations who typically find speech perception particularly challenging (e.g., older adults).

Beyond visual primes: Audiovisual integration of racial identity and sentence intelligibility

There is no biological basis for racial categories. Yet, the presentation of racialized stimuli impacts psycholinguistic processing, suggesting that a talker’s racial identity affects measures of intelligibility (Babel & Russell, 2015; McGowan, 2015). Previous work has used static visual primes, presenting images accompanied by acoustic sentence stimuli. Static visual primes may prime expectations of the person’s speech, with unexpected pairings decreasing intelligibility. These findings show that social expectations affect speech intelligibility and have broad implications for real-world speech perception in high-stakes educational (Evans, Munson, & Edwards, 2017), social (Purnell, Baugh, & Idsardi, 1999), and legal (Rickford & King, 2016) contexts. Expanding our understanding of the psycholinguistic and psychophysical mechanisms behind these phenomena requires experimentation with dynamic, audiovisual speech rather than static visuals. The current experiment presents conflicting visual and auditory cues indexing the white and Black racial identities of the talkers. The talker who is seen (the ‘visual’ talker) and the racial identity of the talker who is heard (the ‘audio’ talker) are fully crossed. This design allows us to examine how intelligibility is influenced by visual racial identity, audio racial identity, and the audiovisual (mis)match between them. Data collection is currently in progress and includes groups of both white and Black listeners.

Original speech and its echo are segregated and separately processed in the human brain.

Speech recognition crucially relies on slow temporal modulations (<16 Hz) in speech. Recent studies, however, have demonstrated that the long-delay echoes, which are common during online conferencing, can eliminate crucial temporal modulations in speech but do not affect speech intelligibility. Here, we investigated the underlying neural mechanisms. MEG experiments demonstrated that cortical activity can effectively track the temporal modulations eliminated by an echo, which cannot be fully explained by basic neural adaptation mechanisms. Furthermore, cortical responses to echoic speech can be better explained by a model that segregates speech from its echo than by a model that encodes echoic speech as a whole. The speech segregation effect was observed even when attention was diverted but would disappear when segregation cues, i.e., speech fine structure, were removed. These results strongly suggested that, through mechanisms such as stream segregation, the auditory system can build an echo-insensitive representation of speech envelope, which can support reliable speech recognition.

Factors Affecting Speech Intelligibility - A Developmental Study

There is a dearth of research on speech intelligibility in typically developing Tamil speaking children and no published study was reported on the relation between factors such as phonetic accuracy, rate of speech, average amplitude, and frequency range in Tamil speaking children. The aim of this study is to investigate the development of speech intelligibility in typically developing Tamil speaking children in the age range of 2 to 6.11 years. A total of 150 typically developing native tamil speaking children between the age range of 2 and 6.11 years were further divided into 5 groups, with each group consisting of 30 children. Nine sentences in Tamil with increasing complexity was developed to study the developmental trend of speech intelligibility. Each child was seated comfortably and pictures of sentences were randomly presented one after the other as the investigator say the sentence describing the picture. The child was instructed to repeat the sentences after the investigator. Acoustic analysis was done using CSL Model 4500 and frequency range , intensity and rate of speech were calculated. Perceptual analysis was done using the transcription sheets, by a speech language pathologist. Subsequently, percentage of phoneme correct for words and sentences were calculated, separately. Independent ‘t’ test, pearson’s rank correlation, spearman’s rank correlation and regression analysis were conducted to find the predictor variables of speech intelligibility. Results revealed, percentage of phoneme correct increased with age and there were no significant gender differences for words and sentences. It was also found that PPC of sentences, intensity average and ROS has a strong positive correlation. As PPC values increases (with age), intensity and rate of speech also increases. Frequency range has no correlation with any of the variables like intensity, PPC and ROS.

Signal Transparency of Remote Microphone Technology in Pediatric Bone Conduction Device Users

Introduction: Competing noise in the environment negatively affects speech intelligibility, particularly when listening at a distance. This is especially true for children with hearing loss in classroom environments where the signal-to-noise ratio is often poor. Remote microphone technology has been shown to be highly beneficial at improving the signal-to-noise ratio in hearing device users. Children with bone conduction devices, however, often must rely on indirect transmission of the acoustic signal for commonly used classroom-based remote microphone listening (e.g., digital adaptive microphone) which may negatively affect speech intelligibility. There are no studies on the effectiveness of using a relay method of signal delivery using remote microphone technology to improve speech intelligibility in adverse listening environments in bone conduction device users. Methods: Nine children with irresolvable conductive hearing loss and 12 adult controls with normal hearing were included for study. Controls were bilaterally plugged to simulate conductive hearing loss. All testing was conducted using the Cochlear™ Baha® 5 standard processor coupled with either the Cochlear™ Mini Microphone 2+ digital remote microphone or the Phonak Roger™ adaptive digital remote microphone. Speech intelligibility in noise was evaluated in the (1) bone conduction device processor alone, (2) bone conduction device + personal remote microphone, and (3) bone conduction device + personal remote microphone + adaptive digital remote microphone listening conditions at −10 dB, 0 dB, and +5 dB signal-to-noise ratios. Results and Conclusions: Speech intelligibility in noise improved significantly in the bone conduction device + personal remote microphone condition over the bone conduction device alone, demonstrating significant benefit for listening at poor signal-to-noise ratios in children with conductive hearing loss using bone conduction devices with personal remote microphone use. Experimental findings demonstrate poor signal transparency when using the relay method. Coupling of the adaptive digital remote microphone technology to the personal remote microphone negatively affects signal transparency, and no hearing in noise improvements are observed. Significant gains in speech intelligibility are consistently observed for direct streaming methods and are confirmed in adult controls. Behavioral findings are supported by objective verification of the signal transparency between the remote microphone and the bone conduction device.

Modeling the effect of linguistic predictability on speech intelligibility prediction.

Many existing speech intelligibility prediction (SIP) algorithms can only account for acoustic factors affecting speech intelligibility and cannot predict intelligibility across corpora with different linguistic predictability. To address this, a linguistic component was added to five existing SIP algorithms by estimating linguistic corpus predictability using a pre-trained language model. The results showed improved SIP performance in terms of correlation and prediction error over a mixture of four datasets, each with a different English open-set corpus.

Effect of Face Masks on Speech Intelligibility

With the advent of COVID, the wearing of face covering has been obligatory in both medical and everyday life. This paper describes three experiments undertaken to establish the effect of face coverings on speech sound power, speech directivity and speech intelligibility. The experiments used two different approaches acoustic measurements and word scores. The face coverings assessed were a 'standard blue' surgical mask, a typical fabric mask, and a plastic transparent visor. The results showed that non-native English speakers had by far the most difficulty in comprehending the English language speech when face coverings were worn in speech intelligibility tests, as measured using phonetically balanced word lists. All the masks were found to noticeably affect speech intelligibility, with the surgical mask having the least detrimental effect. The results are also compared to objective measurements of their physical acoustics characteristics to establish their performance.

Comparing the effects of scattered and specular sound reflections on speech intelligibility in rooms

Speech intelligibility in rooms is assumed to depend on the amount of reverberation, and on the distribution of sound energy in the impulse response between early and later reflections, the former being considered beneficial, the latter detrimental. This assumption is based on the analysis of a single channel, which is monaural. When the binaural capacities of the auditory system are considered, other phenomena come into play, supporting speech recognition mainly by comparing signal levels and times of arrival at the ears. Starting from these basic mechanisms, the present work shows that, for given monaural conditions, binaural cues are influenced by the type of sound reflections in a room via the correlations they produce on the signals at the ears. A fully scattering scenario, and a totally flat boundary scenario were used to investigate listeners’ performance in a speech intelligibility task in a virtual room with spatialized noise conditions. The amount of correlation at the ears of the listener of the signals coming from both the source and the masker were found to affect speech intelligibility - the stronger either correlation, the greater the speech intelligibility - and their joint effect was larger than the two effects taken separately. A specular setting for the sound reflections was associated with both better reception thresholds and a better usage of spatial cues when deciphering speech. The implications for the acoustic design of rooms with a view to facilitating speech intelligibility are discussed.

Speech Intelligibility in Noise: The Role of Talker-Listener Accent Similarity and Second Language Experience

According to previous research, several factors influence speech intelligibility in noise, including talker accent, listener experience, and language proficiency. The current study looked at how L2 experience, accent familiarity, and English IETLS score affect speech intelligibility. To determine whether and how these factors affect L2 learners’ speech intelligibility when understanding speech in noise, the researcher recruited 30 Mandarin speakers with controlled English proficiency (the researcher set a threshold and only recruited participants who were above it). Half of them graduated from Chinese universities and have never travelled outside of China, while others have spent at least one year studying in English-speaking countries. They were asked to listen to 360 sentences recorded by two Mandarin speakers and two native English speakers, and they chose one nonsense sentence among three sentences in each trial. In the testing, all the recordings were added signal-to-noise (SNR) ratios of 0 dB to simulate the noisy environment. The results show a significant speaker effect and IELTS score effect but cannot find a significant listener effect. The researcher came up with four potential reasons for the results and some future directions for the L2 research study.

Acoustic Characteristics of Cantonese Speech Through Protective Facial Coverings

ObjectivesProtective facial coverings (PFCs) such as surgical masks attenuate speech transmission and affect speech intelligibility, which is reported in languages such as English and German. The present study intended to verify the detrimental impacts on production of tonal languages such as Cantonese, by examining realization of speech correlates in Cantonese under PFCs including facial masks and shields. MethodsWe recorded scripted speech in Hong Kong Cantonese produced by three adult speakers who wore various PFCs, including surgical masks, KF94 masks, and face shields (with and without surgical masks). Spectral and temporal parameters were measured, including mean intensity, speaking rate, long-term amplitude spectrum, formant frequencies of vowels, and duration and fundamental frequency (F0) of tone-bearing parts. ResultsSignificant changes were observed in all acoustic correlates of Cantonese speech under PFCs. Sound pressure levels were attenuated more intensely at ranges of higher frequencies in speech through face masks, whereas sound transmission was affected more at ranges of lower frequencies in speech under face shields. Vowel spaces derived from formant frequencies shrank under all PFCs, with the vowel /aa/ demonstrating largest changes in the first two formants. All tone-bearing parts were shortened and showed increments of F0 means in speech through PFCs. The decrease of tone duration was statistically significant in High-level and Low-level tones, while the increment of F0 means was significant in High-level tone only. ConclusionsGeneral filtering effect of PFCs is observed in Cantonese speech data, confirming language-universal patterns in acoustic attenuation by PFCs. The various coverings lower overall intensity levels of speech and degrade speech signal in higher frequency regions. Modification patterns specific to Hong Kong Cantonese are also identified. Vowel space area is reduced and found associated with increased speaking rates. Tones are produced with higher F0s under PFCs, which may be attributed to vocal tension caused by tightened vocal tract during speaking through facial coverings.

The BioVisualSpeech Serious Game with Voice Exercises for People with Parkinson's Disease with Hypokinetic Dysarthria.

People with Parkinson's disease (PD) can have dysarthria, a voice disorder that affects speech intelligibility. To fight this disorder people may resort to speech and language therapy. Unfortunately, weekly speech therapy sessions may not be enough, because to achieve and maintain good voice quality, intensive training is required. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic brought attention to the need for alternative speech therapy treatments that complement face-to-face appointments. Here, we propose a serious therapy game to improve voice loudness that can be used for intensive therapy or when face-to-face appointments are not possible. The game integrates three voice exercises used in speech therapy sessions for people with PD and aims to provide motivation for patients to perform the exercises on a daily basis. This application evaluates the vocal intensity, vocal frequency and maximum phonation time, offering real-time visual feedback. It also allows pathologists to customize the exercises difficulty to the needs of each patient.

How do noise and face masks affect speech intelligibility for cochlear implanted children?

Due to the recent pandemic event related to COVID-19, many countries are mandating the use of face masks to reduce the spread of the virus. Unfortunately, those masks can have a detrimental effect on speech communication, particularly for vulnerable listeners like children with hearing loss. This work investigates which type of face mask yields the highest level of speech intelligibility for children with cochlear implants. Fourteen children with cochlear implants aged 7–15 years have been involved, together with a control group of six normal-hearing children. Online speech intelligibility tests (simplified Italian matrix sentence test) were performed testing different masks at different signal to noise ratios. The listening difficulty was also evaluated on a 5-points scale. The results of this study showed which type of face masks are recommended to maximize intelligibility for children with cochlear implants.

Speech intelligibility deterioration for normal hearing and hearing impaired patients with different types of tinnitus

ObjectivesMany tinnitus subjects report problems with communication, in particular, difficulties with the intelligibility of speech when it is presented in the background of noise. The type of tinnitus (tone-like, noise, etc.), its location and range in the frequency domain, and the type and degree of accompanying hearing loss can affect speech intelligibility in noise in different ways. The main purpose of this study was to determine the effects of tinnitus and degree of hearing loss on the intelligibility of speech when it is presented in a background noise. MethodsA group of 128 patients participated in the study. There were persons with tinnitus and sensorineural hearing loss as well persons with tinnitus without hearing loss. All participants were patients of the Laryngological Centre of Rehabilitation, Medical University in Poznań. The age of patients ranged from 31 to 84 years. An additional group of 10 subjects (24–50 years) with normal hearing and without tinnitus took part in this study as a control group. An initial experiment was concerned with the determination of the tinnitus type. A band of noise of different widths (Q-factor, goodness), with varying centre frequency (f) was used to match the perceived tinnitus type. The Q factor is the ratio of the centre frequency to the noise bandwidth. In the main experiment, the Speech Reception Threshold (SRT) was measured using The Polish Sentence Test (PST). In this test, short sentences were presented in a background of a so-called babble-noise reflecting the averaged spectrum of Polish speech. Resultsamong the different types of signal used by patients to match their tinnitus, the ones most often used were broadband noise in the medium frequency range (BM) and tone-like high-frequency noise (TH). The average Speech Reception Threshold (SRT) for tinnitus patients with normal hearing was 3 dB higher than that for the control group. The highest deterioration in speech intelligibility was observed for broadband tinnitus, located in the mid-frequency band (1.5–5 kHz). ConclusionsTinnitus patients with normal hearing threshold have significantly higher speech reception thresholds (SRT, on average by 3 dB) than normally hearing subjects (control group, without tinnitus), when the speech is presented in a background of babble-noise. Patients with flat audiograms had SRT values on average about 2.5 dB lower than patients with sloping type audiograms (with greater loss at higher frequencies). On average patients in the age group up to 60 years had 4 dB higher SRT values than the control group, and in the older group of patients (above 61 years) - values were 5 dB higher than in the control group. A significant effect of tinnitus located in the medium and high frequency band on the increase of SRT was noted in normally hearing patients and also in patients with mild hearing loss. For higher degrees of hearing loss, the factor that determines the deterioration of speech intelligibility is the hearing loss (moderate and severe), not tinnitus.

Effect of Test Realism on Speech-in-noise Outcomes in Bilateral Cochlear Implant Users.

First, to evaluate the effect of laboratory-based test realism on speech intelligibility outcomes of cochlear implant users. Second, to conduct an exploratory investigation of speech intelligibility of cochlear implant users, including bilateral benefit, under realistic laboratory conditions. For the first goal, the authors measured speech intelligibility scores of 15 bilateral cochlear implant recipients under three different test realism levels at two different signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). The levels included (1) standard Bamford-Kowal-Bench-like sentences with spatially separated standard babble noise; (2) standard Bamford-Kowal-Bench-like sentences with three-dimensional recordings of actual situations; and (3) a variation of the second realism level where the sentences were obtained from natural effortful conversations. For the second goal, speech intelligibility of the realistic speech material was measured in six different acoustic scenes with realistic signal-to-noise ratios ranging from -5.8 dB to 3.2 dB. Speech intelligibility was consistently highest in the most artificial (standard) test and lowest in the most realistic test. The effect of the realistic noise and that of the realistic speech material resulted in distinct SNR-dependent performance shifts with respect to their baselines. Speech intelligibility in realistic laboratory conditions was in general low, with mean scores around 60% at the highest SNR. Bilateral benefit provided on average a 7% benefit over unilateral speech understanding in the better-performing ear. The results obtained here suggest that standard speech-in-noise tests overestimate the performance of cochlear implant recipients in the real world. To address this limitation, future assessments need to improve the realism over current tests by considering the realism of both, the speech and the noise materials. Likewise, speech intelligibility data under realistic conditions suggest that, insofar as these results can be considered representative of real-life performance, conversational speech and noise levels common to cochlear implant recipients are challenging in terms of speech intelligibility, with average scores around 60%. The findings and limitations are discussed alongside the factors affecting speech intelligibility.