Speech Maskers Research Articles

Release from same-talker speech-in-speech masking: Effects of masker intelligibility and other contributing factorsa).

Human speech perception declines in the presence of masking speech, particularly when the masker is intelligible and acoustically similar to the target. A prior investigation demonstrated a substantial reduction in masking when the intelligibility of competing speech was reduced by corrupting voiced segments with noise [Huo, Sun, Fogerty, and Tang (2023), "Quantifying informational masking due to masker intelligibility in same-talker speech-in-speech perception," in Interspeech 2023, pp. 1783-1787]. As this processing also reduced the prominence of voiced segments, it was unclear whether the unmasking was due to reduced linguistic content, acoustic similarity, or both. The current study compared the masking of original competing speech (high intelligibility) to competing speech with time reversal of voiced segments (VS-reversed, low intelligibility) at various target-to-masker ratios. Modeling results demonstrated similar energetic masking between the two maskers. However, intelligibility of the target speech was considerably better with the VS-reversed masker compared to the original masker, likely due to the reduced linguistic content. Further corrupting the masker's voiced segments resulted in additional release from masking. Acoustic analyses showed that the portion of target voiced segments overlapping with masker voiced segments and the similarity between target and masker overlapped voiced segments impacted listeners' speech recognition. Evidence also suggested modulation masking in the spectro-temporal domain interferes with listeners' ability to glimpse the target.

Modulation Interference from Speech-Modulated Noise in Bimodal Cochlear Implant Users

Purpose: This study examined modulation interference in sentence recognition for bimodal cochlear implant (CI) users.Methods: Thirteen bimodal users and thirteen normal-hearing (NH) listeners (reference) participated in this study. The adaptive Korean Matrix sentence-in-noise test measured the speech reception thresholds (SRTs) required for 50% speech-in-noise intelligibility. As background noise, we presented two background noises: stationary speech-shaped noise (SSN) and single-talker speech-modulated masker (International Collegium of Rehabilitative Audiology noise, ICRA). The amount of masking release due to fluctuations in the speech-modulated noise, called speech masking release (SMR), was calculated from the difference between SRTs with SSN and SRTs with ICRA noise. The SRTs were measured twice for bimodal CI users: CI-only and bimodal listening.Results: The mean SMR for NH listeners was approximately 12 dB. The mean SMR for bimodal CI users was about -5 dB, with either CI alone or bimodal listening. This means that bimodal CI users experienced modulation interference rather than masking release from the temporal fluctuations. We observed positive bimodal benefits, yet the interference from fluctuating maskers was similar between the CI-only and bimodal listening. The low-frequency aided hearing thresholds in the non-implanted ear were unrelated to the amount of SMR for bimodal users.Conclusion: NH listeners could take advantage of temporal fluctuations in the speech-modulated noise. However, bimodal CI listeners hardly glimpsed target speech in the dips of the speech-modulated masker, regardless of listening mode. Bimodal listening did not significantly reduce modulation interference compared to CI-only listening.

Pupillometry is sensitive to speech masking during story listening: A commentary on the critical role of modeling temporal trends

An increase in pupil size is an important index of listening effort, for example, when listening to speech masked by noise. Specifically, the pupil dilates as the signal-to-noise ratio decreases. A growing body of work aims to assess listening effort under naturalistic conditions using continuous speech, such as spoken stories. However, a recent study found that pupil size was sensitive to speech masking only when listening to sentences but not under naturalistic conditions when listening to stories. The pupil typically constricts with increasing time on task during an experimental block or session, and it may be necessary to account for this temporal trend in experimental design and data analysis in paradigms using longer, continuous stimuli. In the current work, we re-analyze the previously published pupil data, taking into account a problematic constraint of randomization and time-on-task, and use the data to outline methodological solutions for accounting for temporal trends in physiological data using linear mixed models. The results show that, in contrast to the previous work, pupil size is indeed sensitive to speech masking even during continuous story listening. Furthermore, accounting for the temporal trend allowed modeling the dynamic changes in the speech masking effect on pupil size over time as the continuous story unfolded. After demonstrating the importance of accounting for temporal trends in the analysis of empirical data, we provide simulations, methodological considerations, and user recommendations for the analysis of temporal trends in experimental data using linear mixed models.

Development and content validation of coordinate response measure (CRM) corpus in Kannada for informational masking measurement

BackgroundAssessing informational masking (IM) involves various methods, broadly categorized as electrophysiological and behavioral approaches. In behavioral methods, researchers often use a range of stimulus types such as tone-in-noise masking, speech masking, music masking, gap detection, modulation masking, and spatial masking. The evaluation of speech perception in noisy conditions often utilizes the coordinate response measure (CRM), a publicly available test developed by Moore (AGARD conference proceedings 311, 1981). The objective of the study is to develop and content validate the Kannada coordinate response measure (CRM) sentences corpus for the information masking measurement.ResultsStage 1: A total of thirty-eight call signs, eight colors, and eight numbers in the Kannada language were compiled and were given to 15 experts to select the appropriate stimuli. Those stimuli that satisfied the criteria of CVI ≥ 0.90 and CVR ≥ .90 were selected, which consisted of eight call signs, seven numbers, and five colors. Stage 2: By incorporating the chosen call signs, numbers, and colors, seven sentence structures were formulated and were subjected to content validation (criteria of CVI ≥ 0.90 and CVR ≥ .90). The sentence structure “(Call sign) iga (Color) bannada (Number) torsu” was finalized.Stage 3: Eight speakers (four males and four females) recorded Kannada sentences of about 3.5 s each, which were evaluated by five audiologists for voice quality, rate, and speech clarity using a 4-point scale. The evaluation identified two male and two female speakers with the best recordings.Stage 4: The final stage involved recording 235 sentences by the selected speakers, which were then assessed by two Kannada-speaking audiologists for face validity on various parameters, ensuring linguistic appropriateness and cultural relevance for inclusion in the final CRM corpus.ConclusionThe resulting corpus, meticulously curated and content-validated, presents significant potential for advancing research and clinical assessment of informational masking within the Kannada-speaking community. Overall, the CRM’s exceptional performance in challenging listening environments, inherent adaptability across languages, versatility for different age and literacy levels, and effectiveness in speech-intelligibility testing with multiple simultaneous talkers due to its use of call signs underscores its value as a superior measurement tool, which can be used in IM measurement in Kannada-speaking population.

Speech Masking of Authorship in Conflict-Prone Texts: Linguistic, Legal and Psychological Aspects

The article introduces a comprehensive interdisciplinary approach to authorship speech masking identification and classification as a research domain of the linguistics of lies. The material for the study was a corpus of conflict-prone texts, which, among other things, contained deliberately falsified information about the author. The paper discloses the issues of conflict-prone texts authorship investigation. It presents the description of the main types of speech masking and linguistic ways of their expression. The legal aspects of the concept are revealed, in particular, the description of crimes is given, the compositions of which may include a speech masking of authorship. Some features of the subjective side of the offense (intent, motive) are studied, thus it enables qualifying the speech behavior of a person as a disguise. The psychological aspect of speech masking in the author’s text is highlighted, trends in psychological influence orientation in the context of various types of its implementation are noted. The comprehensive study resulted in the establishment and description of the types of authorship masking. Based on the study of the text array, the linguistic and psychological characteristics of each of the diagnosed types of disguise were identified in terms of legislative norms and relevant law enforcement practice.

Magnified interaural level differences enhance spatial release from masking in bilateral cochlear implant users.

Bilateral cochlear implant (BiCI) usage makes binaural benefits a possibility for implant users. Yet, limited access to interaural time difference (ITD) cues and reduced saliency of interaural level difference (ILD) cues restricts perceptual benefits of spatially separating a target from masker sounds for BiCI users. Here, we explore whether magnifying ILD cues improves intelligibility of masked speech for BiCI listeners in a "symmetrical-masker" configuration, which controls for long-term positive target-to-masker ratio (TMR) at the ear nearer the target from naturally occurring ILD cues. We magnified ILDs by estimating moment-to-moment ITDs in 1-octave-wide frequency bands, and applying corresponding ILDs to the target-masker mixtures reaching the two ears at each time in each frequency band. We conducted two experiments, one with NH listeners using vocoded stimuli and one with BiCI users. ILD magnification significantly improved intelligibility in both experiments. BiCI listeners showed no benefit of spatial separation between target and maskers with natural ILDs, even for the largest target-masker separation. Because ILD magnification is applied to the mixed signals at each ear, the strategy does not alter the TMR in either ear at any time; improvements to masked speech intelligibility are thus likely from improved perceptual separation of the competing sources.

Musician Advantage for Segregation of Competing Speech in Native Tonal Language Speakers

The aim of this study was to replicate previous English-language musician advantage studies in Mandarin-speaking musicians and nonmusicians. Segregation of competing speech, melodic pitch perception, and spectro-temporal pattern perception were measured in normal-hearing native Mandarin-speaking musicians and nonmusicians. Speech recognition thresholds were measured in the presence of two-talker masker speech. The masker sex was either the same as or different from the target; target and masker speech were either co-located or spatially separated. Melodic pitch perception was tested using a melodic contour identification task. Spectro-temporal resolution was measured using a modified spectral ripple detection task. We hypothesized that, given musician advantages in pitch perception, musician effects would be larger when the target and masker sex was the same than when different. For all tests, performance was significantly better for musicians than for nonmusicians. Contrary to our expectation, larger musician effects were observed for segregation of competing speech when the target and masker sex was different. The results show that musician effects observed for non-tonal language speakers extend to tonal language speakers. The data also suggest that musician effects may depend on the difficulty of the listening task and may be reduced when listening tasks are too easy or too difficult.

Speech Recognition and Subjective Hearing Abilities for Electric-Acoustic Stimulation Users With Unilateral Hearing Loss.

Some cochlear implant (CI) recipients with unilateral hearing loss (UHL) have functional acoustic hearing in the implanted ear, warranting the fitting of an ipsilateral electric-acoustic stimulation (EAS) device. The present study assessed speech recognition and subjective hearing abilities over time for EAS users with UHL. Prospective, repeated-measures. Tertiary referral center. Adult CI recipients with normal-to-moderate low-frequency acoustic thresholds in the implanted ear and a contralateral pure-tone average (0.5, 1, and 2 kHz) ≤25 dB HL. Participants were evaluated preoperatively and at 1, 3, and 6 months post-activation. Speech recognition for the affected ear was evaluated with CNC words in quiet. Masked speech recognition in the bilateral condition was evaluated with AzBio sentences in a 10-talker masker (0 dB SNR) for three spatial configurations: target from the front and masker either colocated with the target or presented 90 degrees toward the affected or contralateral ear. Responses to the Speech, Spatial, and Qualities of Hearing Scale subscales were used to assess subjective hearing abilities. Participants experienced significant improvements in CNC scores ( F(3,13) = 14.90, p < 0.001), and masked speech recognition in the colocated ( F(3,11) = 3.79, p = 0.043) and masker toward the contralateral ear ( F(3,11) = 4.75, p = 0.023) configurations. They also reported significantly better abilities on the Speech Hearing ( F(3,13) = 5.19, p = 0.014) and Spatial Hearing ( F(3,13) = 10.22, p = 0.001) subscales. Adults with UHL and functional acoustic hearing in the implanted ear experience significant improvements in speech recognition and subjective hearing abilities within the initial months of EAS use as compared with preoperative performance and perceptions.

BELMASK—An Audiovisual Dataset of Adversely Produced Speech for Auditory Cognition Research

In this article, we introduce the Berlin Dataset of Lombard and Masked Speech (BELMASK), a phonetically controlled audiovisual dataset of speech produced in adverse speaking conditions, and describe the development of the related speech task. The dataset contains in total 128 min of audio and video recordings of 10 German native speakers (4 female, 6 male) with a mean age of 30.2 years (SD: 6.3 years), uttering matrix sentences in cued, uninstructed speech in four conditions: (i) with a Filtering Facepiece P2 (FFP2) mask in silence, (ii) without an FFP2 mask in silence, (iii) with an FFP2 mask while exposed to noise, iv) without an FFP2 mask while exposed to noise. Noise consisted of mixed-gender six-talker babble played over headphones to the speakers, triggering the Lombard effect. All conditions are readily available in face-and-voice and voice-only formats. The speech material is annotated, employing a multi-layer architecture, and was originally conceptualized to be used for the administration of a working memory task. The dataset is stored in a restricted-access Zenodo repository and is available for academic research in the area of speech communication, acoustics, psychology and related disciplines upon request, after signing an End User License Agreement (EULA).

Masked speech recognition by 6–13-year-olds with early-childhood otitis media: effects of acoustic condition and otologic history

Objective To investigate speech recognition in school-age children with early-childhood otitis media (OM) in conditions with noise or speech maskers with or without interaural differences. To also investigate the effects of three otologic history factors. Design Using headphone presentation, speech recognition thresholds (SRTs) were measured with simple sentences. As maskers, stationary speech-shaped noise (SSN) or two-talker running speech (TTS) were used. The stimuli were presented in a monaural and binaural condition (SSN) or a co-located and spatially separated condition (TTS). Based on the available medical records, overall OM duration, OM onset age, and time since the last OM episode were estimated. Study sample 6–13-year-olds with a history of recurrent OM (N = 42) or without any ear diseases (N = 20) with normal tympanograms and audiograms at the time of testing. Results Mixed-model regression analyses that controlled for age showed poorer SRTs for the OM group (Δ-value = 0.84 dB, p = 0.009). These appeared driven by the spatially separated, binaural, and monaural conditions. The OM group showed large inter-individual differences, which were unrelated to the otologic history factors. Conclusions Early-childhood OM can affect speech recognition in different acoustic conditions. The effects of the otologic history warrant further investigation.

The role of long-term target and masker talker familiarity in children's speech-in-speech recognition.

This study investigated the influence of long-term talker familiarity on speech-in-speech recognition in school-age children, with a specific emphasis on the role of familiarity with the mother's voice as either the target or masker speech. Open-set sentence recognition was measured adaptively in a two-talker masker. Target and masker sentences were recorded by the adult mothers of the child participants. Each child heard sentences spoken by three adult female voices during testing; their own mother's voice (familiar voice) and two unfamiliar adult female voices. Twenty-four school age children (8-13 years) with normal hearing. When the target speech was spoken by a familiar talker (the mother), speech recognition was significantly better compared to when the target was unfamiliar. When the masker was spoken by the familiar talker, there was no difference in performance relative to the unfamiliar masker condition. Across all conditions, younger children required a more favorable signal-to-noise ratio than older children. Implicit long-term familiarity with a talker consistently improves children's speech-in-speech recognition across the age range tested, specifically when the target talker is familiar. However, performance remains unaffected by masker talker familiarity. Additionally, while target familiarity is advantageous, it does not entirely eliminate children's increased susceptibility to competing speech.

Difficult speech-on-speech recognition as a behavioral indicator in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Our study highlights the potential of speech recognition difficulty under noisy environment as a robust behavioral marker for detecting ADHD. Specifically, speech recognition difficulty under speech masker, rather than under noise masker, serves as a more effective indicator for detecting ADHD. Speech-on-speech recognition difficulty is correlated to various symptoms of ADHD, including the most commonly used scales of SNAP-IV and CPRS.

Pupil Size and Eye Movements Differently Index Effort in Both Younger and Older Adults.

The assessment of mental effort is increasingly relevant in neurocognitive and life span domains. Pupillometry, the measure of the pupil size, is often used to assess effort but has disadvantages. Analysis of eye movements may provide an alternative, but research has been limited to easy and difficult task demands in younger adults. An effort measure must be sensitive to the whole effort profile, including "giving up" effort investment, and capture effort in different age groups. The current study comprised three experiments in which younger (n = 66) and older (n = 44) adults listened to speech masked by background babble at different signal-to-noise ratios associated with easy, difficult, and impossible speech comprehension. We expected individuals to invest little effort for easy and impossible speech (giving up) but to exert effort for difficult speech. Indeed, pupil size was largest for difficult but lower for easy and impossible speech. In contrast, gaze dispersion decreased with increasing speech masking in both age groups. Critically, gaze dispersion during difficult speech returned to levels similar to easy speech after sentence offset, when acoustic stimulation was similar across conditions, whereas gaze dispersion during impossible speech continued to be reduced. These findings show that a reduction in eye movements is not a byproduct of acoustic factors, but instead suggest that neurocognitive processes, different from arousal-related systems regulating the pupil size, drive reduced eye movements during high task demands. The current data thus show that effort in one sensory domain (audition) differentially impacts distinct functional properties in another sensory domain (vision).

Long- and short-term implicit talker familiarity: Effects on children's word and sentence recognition

While previous research has highlighted the positive effects of talker familiarity on children’s word recognition in quiet, its role in challenging listening conditions remains poorly understood for this age group. Additionally, the amount of familiarity required to yield benefits remains unclear. The current study explored implicitly acquired short and long-term talker familiarity effects in school-age children (8–12 years), utilizing speech or noise maskers. Experiment 1 assessed open-set sentence recognition in a two-talker-female masker, with the child's mother's voice serving as the target or masker speech. Experiment 2 measured closed-set word recognition in a noise masker, both before and after a 5-day exposure to a female talker. Results from Experiment 1 indicate that children benefit from familiarity when their mother is the target talker, but not when she is the masking speech. In Experiment 2, children exhibited familiarity effects after only a 5-day exposure period to a previously unfamiliar voice, demonstrating a significant impact of implicit short-term familiarity. Working memory and selective attention did not predict performance or benefit. Together, these findings underscore the importance of talker familiarity in children's speech recognition in challenging listening situations. The implications of these findings for understanding the mechanisms underlying familiarity effects will be discussed.

Using vocoded speech to study temporal weighting in spatial release from masking

Several aspects of binaural and spatial hearing appear to be dominated by moments of rising envelope fluctuations (“onsets”), although those phenomena are limited to events occurring less than a few hundred times per second. Thus, for example, the localization of a brief tone is dominated by the binaural information available in the overall sound onset. Whereas for a modulated sound each envelope period may contribute equally, assuming the modulation rate is not too high. For speech signals, syllabic modulations provide multiple onset-like events which may occur synchronously or asynchronously across frequency bands. Although previous studies have shown that rising envelope fluctuations play an outsized role in localization and lateralization, it is unknown whether other aspects of spatial hearing–such as spatial release from masking (SRM)–are similarly dominated by rising envelopes. Here, we used a Gabor-click-train vocoder to transform speech sounds and manipulate the spatial content of rising- versus falling-envelope segments of the speech in each frequency band. Introducing binaural differences between target and masker speech allows the assessment of localization and/or SRM across conditions in which the cues are limited to rising- or falling-envelope segments, or available throughout the signal. [Work supported by NIH R01DC016643, T32000013.]

Role of spatial positioning strategy for speech recognition in a simulated environment: Effects of age and hearing loss

In realistic listening environments, the physical position of the listener and target talker, relative to competing talkers, affects the signal-to-noise ratio and availability of spatial cues for release from masking. While the importance of signal-to-noise ratio and spatial cues for speech recognition has been demonstrated in the laboratory, a listener’s ability to leverage these acoustic cues by manipulating their position in an environment has received less attention. This study evaluated how changes in listener position within a simulated environment effect speech recognition for four listener groups that differed in age (younger or older) and hearing status (normal or impaired hearing). The simulated environment consisted of 8–10 speech maskers, individually rendered under headphones for specific locations within the space, with target and listener positions that varied across conditions. The intensity of the target varied throughout testing to estimate the psychometric function for keyword recognition of each listener in each position. Subjective reports of preferred listening position were collected before and after testing to determine the extent to which these listener groups strategically position themselves to maximize their speech recognition in noise. Results will be discussed in terms of the potential gains in speech recognition associated with optimal positioning strategies.

Tonal language experience facilitates the use of spatial cues for segregating competing speech in bimodal cochlear implant listeners.

English-speaking bimodal and bilateral cochlear implant (CI) users can segregate competing speech using talker sex cues but not spatial cues. While tonal language experience allows for greater utilization of talker sex cues for listeners with normal hearing, tonal language benefits remain unclear for CI users. The present study assessed the ability of Mandarin-speaking bilateral and bimodal CI users to recognize target sentences amidst speech maskers that varied in terms of spatial cues and/or talker sex cues, relative to the target. Different from English-speaking CI users, Mandarin-speaking CI users exhibited greater utilization of spatial cues, particularly in bimodal listening.

Inclusion of individuals with Down syndrome in auditory research

This talk will provide an overview of the procedures, challenges, and key findings of Project INCLUDE at Boys Town National Research Hospital. Funded by a trans-NIH initiative to investigate health conditions that affect individuals living with Down syndrome, the goal of Project INCLUDE at Boys Town National Research Hospital is to characterize how speech, language, and hearing develop across the lifespan. Individuals living with Down syndrome have been inadequately represented in auditory research, which has likely contributed to health care disparities. The exclusion of individuals with Down syndrome in prior research is particularly concerning given the high prevalence of hearing loss and otologic disease observed in this population. Results from an ongoing experiment investigating masked speech recognition outcomes will be presented. Participants are school-age children and young adults with Down syndrome and age-matched participants who are neurotypical. Data collection includes clinical audiological measures and standardized assessments of speech, language, and executive function, facilitating comparisons with other cohorts affiliated with the NIH-wide initiative. Recommendations for recruitment, details on the formation of a community advisory board, and community-based testing initiatives will be discussed.

Masked Speech Perception with Bone Conduction Device, Contralateral Routing of Signals Hearing Aid, and Cochlear Implant Use in Adults with Single-Sided Deafness: A Prospective Hearing Device Comparison using a Unified Testing Framework

Introduction: For the treatment of single-sided deafness (SSD), common treatment choices include a contralateral routing of signals (CROS) hearing aid, a bone conduction device (BCD), and a cochlear implant (CI). The primary aim of this study was to compare speech understanding in noise and binaural benefits in adults with postlingual SSD between preoperative unaided baseline, preoperative CROS and BCD trial devices, and CI, following recommendations from a consensus protocol. In addition, we investigated the effect of masker type on speech understanding. Methods: This was a prospective study with twelve participants. Binaural effects of head shadow, squelch, summation, and spatial release from masking were assessed by measuring speech reception thresholds (SRTs) in five different spatial target-masker configurations using two different maskers: two-talker babble (TTB), and speech-shaped noise (SSN). Preoperatively, participants were assessed unaided and with CROS and BCD trial devices. After cochlear implantation, participants were assessed at 1, 3, and 6 months post-activation. Results: For TTB, significant improvements in SRT with a CI relative to preoperatively unaided were found in all spatial configurations. With CI at 6 months, median benefits were 7.8 dB in SSSDNAH and 5.1 dB in S0NAH (head shadow), 3.4 dB in S0N0 (summation), and 4.6 dB in S0NSSD and 5.1 dB in SAHNSSD (squelch). CROS yielded a significant head shadow benefit of 2.4 dB in SSSDNAH and a significant deterioration in squelch of 2.5 dB in S0NSSD and SAHNSSD, but no summation effect. With BCD, there was a significant summation benefit of 1.5 dB, but no head shadow nor squelch effect. For SSN, significant improvements in SRT with CI compared to preoperatively unaided were found in three spatial configurations. Median benefits with CI at 6 months were: 8.5 dB in SSSDNAH and 4.6 dB in S0NAH (head shadow), 1.4 dB in S0N0 (summation), but no squelch. CROS showed a significant head shadow benefit of 1.7 dB in SSSDNAH, but no summation effect, and a significant deterioration in squelch of 2.9 dB in S0NSSD and 3.2 dB in SAHNSSD. With BCD, no binaural effect was obtained. Longitudinally, we found significant head shadow benefits with a CI in SSSDNAH in both maskers at all postoperative intervals and in S0NAH at 3 and 6 months post-activation. Conclusion: With a CI, a clear benefit for masked speech perception was observed for all binaural effects. Benefits with CROS and BCD were more limited. CROS usage was detrimental to the squelch effect.

Evaluating speech-in-speech perception via a humanoid robot.

Underlying mechanisms of speech perception masked by background speakers, a common daily listening condition, are often investigated using various and lengthy psychophysical tests. The presence of a social agent, such as an interactive humanoid NAO robot, may help maintain engagement and attention. However, such robots potentially have limited sound quality or processing speed. As a first step toward the use of NAO in psychophysical testing of speech- in-speech perception, we compared normal-hearing young adults' performance when using the standard computer interface to that when using a NAO robot to introduce the test and present all corresponding stimuli. Target sentences were presented with colour and number keywords in the presence of competing masker speech at varying target-to-masker ratios. Sentences were produced by the same speaker, but voice differences between the target and masker were introduced using speech synthesis methods. To assess test performance, speech intelligibility and data collection duration were compared between the computer and NAO setups. Human-robot interaction was assessed using the Negative Attitude Toward Robot Scale (NARS) and quantification of behavioural cues (backchannels). Speech intelligibility results showed functional similarity between the computer and NAO setups. Data collection durations were longer when using NAO. NARS results showed participants had a relatively positive attitude toward "situations of interactions" with robots prior to the experiment, but otherwise showed neutral attitudes toward the "social influence" of and "emotions in interaction" with robots. The presence of more positive backchannels when using NAO suggest higher engagement with the robot in comparison to the computer. Overall, the study presents the potential of the NAO for presenting speech materials and collecting psychophysical measurements for speech-in-speech perception.