A method for measuring the intelligibility of uninterrupted, continuous speech

MacPherson, Alexandra; Akeroyd, Michael A.

doi:10.1121/1.4863657

Cited by 8 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Significantly, higher SRTs were obtained for connected discourse compared with the Matrix and LIST sentences, especially when CT was used as masker (Matrix/LIST vs. Story1: −9 dB). This is in line with previous results of MacPherson and Akeroyd (2014) who also found worse SRTs for connected discourse compared with continuous speech (i.e., sentences) in SWN. As a result of this, it seems that connected discourse materials should be carefully selected because an effect of interest may in reality reflect differences in content or acoustics between- or within-speech materials.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…However, in this study, we did not find a significant effect of speech material on the intersubject variability. While MacPherson and Akeroyd (2014) recruited older listeners with different degrees of hearing loss, our participant group was very homogeneous as it consisted only of young, normal-hearing participants. Despite this, we found higher intersubject variabilities for our fluctuating noise (CT) which is consistent with validation studies of speech-in-noise tests ( Francart et al., 2011 ; Jansen et al., 2012 ; Wagener & Brand, 2005 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, connected discourse materials are usually not standardized. Despite this, commercial or lab recordings of stories have been used in studies to evaluate a person’s speech intelligibility during a behavioral or electrophysiological test ( Ding & Simon, 2013 ; Falconer & Davis, 1947 ; MacPherson & Akeroyd, 2014 ; Petersen, Wöstmann, Obleser, & Lunner, 2017 ). As there are large differences regarding content and acoustic properties between these stories, it is difficult to compare the results between these studies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… Best, Keidser, Buchholz, and Freeston (2016) showed that the SRTs of sentence tests were highly correlated with those on their content-related question-and-answer test. Although this method seems promising, it is time consuming since a constant procedure is used and the results highly rely on the listener’s postperceptual abilities ( MacPherson & Akeroyd, 2014 ), the content of the speech material and how the content-related questions are selected.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, a new method was developed by MacPherson and Akeroyd (2014) , the Glasgow monitoring of uninterrupted speech task. In this procedure, the participant is instructed to listen to connected discourse while simultaneously reading a written transcript.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Self-Assessed Békesy Procedure: Validation of a Method to Measure Intelligibility of Connected Discourse

et al. 2018

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In clinical practice and research, speech intelligibility is generally measured by instructing the participant to recall sentences. Although this is a reliable and highly repeatable measure, it cannot be used to measure intelligibility of connected discourse. Therefore, we developed a new method, the self-assessed Békesy procedure, which is an adaptive procedure that uses intelligibility ratings to converge to a person’s speech reception threshold. In this study, we describe the new procedure and the validation in young, normal-hearing listeners. First, we compared the results on the self-assessed Békesy procedure to a recall procedure for standardized sentences. Next, we evaluated the inter- and intrasubject variability of our procedure. Furthermore, we compared the thresholds for sentences in three masker types between the self-assessed Békesy and a recall procedure to verify if these procedures resulted in similar conclusions. Finally, we compared the thresholds for two types of sentences and commercial recordings of stories. In general, the self-assessed Békesy procedure is shown to be a valid and reliable procedure as similar thresholds (difference < 1 dB) and test–retest reliability (< 1.5 dB) were observed compared with standard speech audiometry tests. In addition, the time efficiency and similar differences between maskers to a recall procedure support the potential of this procedure to be implemented in research. Finally, significant differences between the thresholds of sentences and connected discourse materials were found, indicating the importance of controlling for differences in intelligibility when presenting these materials at the same signal-to-noise ratios or when comparing studies.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Self-Assessed Békesy Procedure: Validation of a Method to Measure Intelligibility of Connected Discourse

et al. 2018

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Hearing Aid Validation

et al. 2016

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Hearing impairment is associated with enhanced neural tracking of the speech envelope

2020

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Elevated hearing thresholds in hearing impaired adults are usually compensated by providing amplification through a hearing aid. In spite of restoring hearing sensitivity, difficulties with understanding speech in noisy environments often remain. One main reason is that sensorineural hearing loss not only causes loss of audibility but also other deficits, including peripheral distortion but also central temporal processing deficits. To investigate the neural consequences of hearing impairment in the brain underlying speech-in-noise difficulties, we compared EEG responses to natural speech of 14 hearing impaired adults with those of 14 age-matched normal-hearing adults. We measured neural envelope tracking to sentences and a story masked by different levels of a stationary noise or competing talker. Despite their sensorineural hearing loss, hearing impaired adults showed higher neural envelope tracking of the target than the competing talker, similar to their normal-hearing peers. Furthermore, hearing impairment was related to an additional increase in neural envelope tracking of the target talker, suggesting that hearing impaired adults may have an enhanced sensitivity to envelope modulations or require a larger differential neural tracking of target versus competing talker to segregate speech from noise. Lastly, both normal-hearing and hearing impaired participants showed an increase in neural envelope tracking with increasing speech understanding. Hence, our results open avenues towards new clinical applications, such as neuro-steered prostheses as well as objective and automatic measurements of speech understanding performance.

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A method for measuring the intelligibility of uninterrupted, continuous speech

Cited by 8 publications

References 16 publications

The Self-Assessed Békesy Procedure: Validation of a Method to Measure Intelligibility of Connected Discourse

The Self-Assessed Békesy Procedure: Validation of a Method to Measure Intelligibility of Connected Discourse

Hearing Aid Validation

Hearing impairment is associated with enhanced neural tracking of the speech envelope

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