Effects of Gender on Listeners' Judgments of Speech Intelligibility

Abstract

Effects of gender on listeners' judgments of intelligibility were investigated. Subjects (15 women; 15 men) provided magnitude-estimation scaling responses and over-all impression of the intelligibility of a male and female speaker's comparable versions of audiotaped speech samples varying systematically in terms of the number of phonemes produced correctly. There was no significant difference between male and female subjects' magnitude-estimation scaling responses; however, their over-all impressions of the intelligibility of the speakers tended to differ. Women indicated that the male speaker was more understandable, and men indicated that the female speaker was more understandable. Magnitude-estimation scaling may provide an objective means for evaluating a speaker's intelligibility. It appears to transcend gender-biases associated with judgments of speech intelligibility.

Speech intelligibility in hospitals

“…While many studies have shown relationships between talker gender and speech perception, fewer have examined the role of listener gender or interaction effects, with somewhat conflicting results. [50][51][52][53] Staff in EDs and SDSs felt that they had to raise their voices more at the nurses stations compared to IP and MB staff. Indeed, the ED nurse station SII was problematic and lower than the other units, with an average across hospitals of 0.33.…”

Medidas de inteligibilidade nos distúrbios da fala: revisão crítica da literatura

“…The methods used to assess intelligibility of individuals with speech disturbances can be divided into two groups: scaling methods and item identification methods (1). Scaling methods encompass: direct magnitude estimate (12,19,22), interval scaling (7,(23)(24)(25)(26), rating of speech sample pairs(1), percentage estimates (7,17) and the analogic visual scale (20). Item identification methods involve multiple formats according to the type of response required to identify speech stimuli.…”

“…Listeners subsequently establish values for the speech samples of the subjects assessed, which represent the degree of intelligibility of these utterances in relation to the standard sample (22). In one variant of this method, the listener is asked to designate a value to the first sample assessed, which is then taken as a reference for assessing the remaining items (12,19).…”

“…Besides the issue of the diversity of methods available, another important aspect is the influence certain variables can have on these measures (1,2). A number of studies on the intelligibility of speech have addressed the effects of several of these variables including: the task employed for speech sample collection(5), the stimulus type used (3,4,(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14), the mode in which samples are presented (11,13,(15)(16)(17), the response type required to identify the stimuli (7,18), the type of transcription analysis(2), the gender of the listener or rater (13,19), or their familiarity with the speaker(s) (9,11,13,20,21)).…”

The Speech Intelligibility Aboard Metros in Different Running Conditions

“…Osafo-Yeboah et al [37] and Ellis et al [38] reported that in their researches theyhavenot found anystatistically significant difference in the intelligibility scores of male and female listeners, howevert heyn oticed that the overall impressions of speakers intelligibility differed. Women estimated the male speaker as more understandable while men indicated that the female speaker wasmore understandable [38]. On the contrary,W ilding and Cook (2000)reported that female listeners showed an enhanced ability to recognize female voices [39].…”