Comparison of Two Types of Combined Measures, STI and U50, for Predicting Speech Intelligibility in Classrooms

Choi, Young‐Ho

doi:10.1515/aoa-2017-0056

Cited by 8 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 6 publications

(18 reference statements)

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“…Setting a fixed source-receiver distance of 1.25 m, and testing two SNRs (mean −8.5 and −4.5 dB), Picou et al (2019) found no effect of reverberation on listening effort in children. Based on the data reported in the study and the formulas in Long (2014) and Choi (2017), we can estimate the value of U 50 for their experimental conditions. For an SNR of −8.5 dB, U 50 was −10.5 dB for the short and −10.3 dB for the moderate reverberation times; for an SNR of −4.5 dB, it was −6.1 and −6.5 dB, respectively.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Slight Increase in Reverberation Time in the Classroom Affects Performance and Behavioral Listening Effort

Prodi

Visentin²

2021

Ear &Amp; Hearing

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Objectives:The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a small change in reverberation time (from 0.57 to 0.69 s) in a classroom on children's performance and listening effort. Aiming for ecological listening conditions, the change in reverberation time was combined with the presence or absence of classroom noise. In three academic tasks, the study examined whether the effect of reverberation was modulated by the presence of noise and depended on the children's age.Design: A total of 302 children (aged 11-13 years, grades 6-8) with normal hearing participated in the study. Three typical tasks of daily classroom activities (speech perception, sentence comprehension, and mental calculation) were administered to groups of children in two listening conditions (quiet and classroom noise). The experiment was conducted inside real classrooms, where reverberation time was controlled. The outcomes considered were task accuracy and response times (RTs), the latter taken as a behavioral proxy for listening effort. Participants were also assessed on reading comprehension and math fluency. To investigate the impact of noise and/or reverberation, these two scores were entered in the statistical model to control for individual child's general academic abilities.Results: While the longer reverberation time did not significantly affect accuracy or RTs under the quiet condition, it had several effects when in combination with classroom noise, depending on the task measured. A significant drop in accuracy with a longer reverberation time emerged for the speech perception task, but only for the grade 6 children. The effect on accuracy of a longer reverberation time was nonsignificant for sentence comprehension (always at ceiling), and depended on the children's age in the mental calculation task. RTs were longer for moderate than for short reverberation times in the speech perception and sentence comprehension tasks, while there was no significant effect of the different reverberation times on RTs in the mental calculation task. Conclusions:The results indicate small, but statistically significant, effects of a small change in reverberation time on listening effort as well as accuracy for children aged 11 to 13 performing typical tasks of daily classroom activities. Thus, the results extend previous findings in adults to children as well. The findings also contribute to a better understanding of the practical implications and importance of optimal ranges of reverberation time in classrooms. A comparison with previous studies underscored the importance of early reflections as well as reverberation times in classrooms.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Slight Increase in Reverberation Time in the Classroom Affects Performance and Behavioral Listening Effort

Prodi

Visentin²

2021

Ear &Amp; Hearing

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“…where "r h " is the reverberation distance where the energy densities of the reflected and direct sounds become equal; "r" is the source-receiver distance; "RT" is the reverberation time; SNR is the signal-to-noise ratio at "r." Table 2 indicates the octave band U 50 (125-8000 Hz) values for the classroom under quiet and noisy conditions. The average U 50 values calculated as a frequency-weighted sum 23 change by an order of nearly 2 dB across the two conditions. The influence of the presence of noise apart from reverberation is seen across all frequency bands, with the 1-kHz U 50 value ranging between −1.05 and −5.7 dB for quiet to noisy conditions, respectively.…”

Section: Room Acoustic Measuresmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Frequency weightings as per the method used by Choi 23 were used to derive the octave band U 50 values by averaging the octave band values from 125 to 4000 Hz, considering that this range of octave band frequencies is home to all the vowel sounds and the mean U 50 was evaluated as a frequency-weighted sum. The octave band U 50 value evaluated at the center of the classroom was considered.…”

Section: Room Acoustic Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effect of mode of delivery and background noise on speech characteristics of talkers in a classroom environment

Subramaniam

Ramamurthy

2019

Building Acoustics

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Global and acoustic–phonetic correlates of speech intelligibility are important measures of talker intelligibility. Speech characteristics have been evaluated using speech samples that involve reading pre-administered passages under controlled environments. In classrooms, lecturing is the mode of speech delivery. The presence of noise from ceiling fans and other external noise hinder the speech communication process. This study evaluated the talkers’ speech characteristics utilizing recordings from graduate students under reading and lecturing modes and in the presence and absence of noise generated by ceiling fans. The acoustical conditions under which talkers delivered their speech were characterized using octave band U50 values. Global and acoustic–phonetic correlates of talker intelligibility were measured and the variation in correlates of speech intelligibility was statistically analyzed. The results revealed that talkers significantly modified their speech characteristics relevant to intelligibility across modes of speech delivery and in the presence of noise. Fundamental frequency measures such as F0-mean and F0-SD and durational measures such as speech and pause rates were all found to be higher for lecture mode of delivery. Talkers showed similar vowel-articulatory changes under the two modes of delivery. When lecturing in the presence of noise, talkers significantly reduced the length of pauses and also utilized a combination of vowel-articulatory strategies to overcome the presence of noise. The results suggest the need to investigate talkers’ speech adaptation in real classroom environments in terms of correlates of speech intelligibility and to reconsider classroom acoustical guidelines in view of both listener and talker intelligibilities.

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“…Distintos estudios evidencian la necesidad de mejoras en la acústica de las aulas de clase dado los niveles actuales de los parámetros acústicos en comparación con los estándares a nivel mundial [39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50], razón por la cual el conocimiento de las medidas de mejoramiento anteriormente mencionadas sería útil para aumentar los niveles de calidad de la acústica en las instituciones educativas.…”

Section: Medidas De Mejoramientounclassified

Condiciones acústicas en las aulas de clase: Una revisión de la literatura

Urón

Martínez

Barraza

et al. 2021

Investigación e Innovación en Ingenierías

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Resumen Objetivo: Realizar una revisión de la literatura relacionada con normas y criterios utilizados en la acústica de las aulas de clase y las variables de estudio de tiempo de re verberación, inteligibilidad de la palabra y ruido de fondo. Metodología o método: Se realizó una búsqueda de artículos en la base de datos Scopus, publicados entre enero de 2015 y agosto de 2020, relacionados con la calidad acústica en las aulas de clase cuyas variables de estudio fueran el tiempo reverberación, inteligibilidad de la palabra y/o ruido de fondo. Posteriormente se estudió y analizó el contenido de cada uno de ellos. Resultados: La literatura recopilada mostró que el 31.1% de los estudios evaluaron el tiempo de reverberación y que así mismo, este es el parámetro que se incumple en mayor medida. Se identificó que la calidad acústica en las aulas de clase es predominantemente mala. El 37.8% de las causas de disconfort acústico en las aulas estuvieron asociadas a la ausencia de materiales de absorción acústica. Conclusiones: Se concluye que la cantidad de estudios en calidad acústica de los recintos educativos es significativa, y que éstos, muestran la necesidad de mejoras en los aspectos constructivos de las instituciones. Además, se encontró que la calidad acústica puede tener impactos en la percepción de bienestar y en la salud de los estudiantes y profesores. Se evidenció la utilización de métodos matemáticos como algoritmos y simulaciones para la identificación de mejoras en la acústica de los centros educativos.

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Comparison of Two Types of Combined Measures, STI and U50, for Predicting Speech Intelligibility in Classrooms

Cited by 8 publications

References 6 publications

A Slight Increase in Reverberation Time in the Classroom Affects Performance and Behavioral Listening Effort

A Slight Increase in Reverberation Time in the Classroom Affects Performance and Behavioral Listening Effort

Effect of mode of delivery and background noise on speech characteristics of talkers in a classroom environment

Condiciones acústicas en las aulas de clase: Una revisión de la literatura

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