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PubMed1994

[A study on speech intelligibility in traffic noise].

In studying speech intelligibility in traffic noise, I was able to reproduce a sound field with considerable reality by reproducing both speech and traffic noises by the speaker method using a CD. As a result, the following conclusions were reached. 1) The influence of noise on speech intelligibility is similar for the single syllable and adult disyllable in normal persons. 2) The influence of the kinds of noises and changes with time in the sound pressure level on the intelligibility of the single syllable does not easily manifest itself in patients with sensorineural hearing loss. 3) The speech intelligibility depends largely on the blocking effect of the mid-high frequency components of the noise in both normal persons and patients with sensorineural hearing loss. 4) The intelligibility of the second sound of the adult disyllable is good in both normal persons and patients with sensorineural hearing loss. Furthermore, normal persons can understand a significant disyllable word to some extent by means of "uncertain understanding" even when they cannot hear each vowel and consonant clearly. 5) The intelligibility of the vowel is good in both normal persons and patients with sensorineural hearing loss. 6) As for the intelligibility classified by consonant in normal persons, the intelligibility of the nasal sounds (m, n) and voiced consonants (b, d, g, r, z) becomes low in the case of the S/N ratio being poor. 7) In patients with sensorineural hearing loss, the intelligibility of the bulldozer noise was the lowest, followed by motorway noise among the noises applied. The frequency spectrum distribution of the former consisted mainly of mid-high frequencies of 1 kHz or more. A serrated change with an amplitude of about 6 dB, 2 Hz was noted at the sound pressure level. A sine wave-like change with an amplitude of about 7 dB, 1 Hz was recognized at the sound pressure level of the latter. These are considered to be factors which account for a decline in intelligibility. The present study is part of an experiment I conducted at a sound field using TY-89. The results of this experiment suggest that the frequency spectrum intelligibility of noise as well as time-dependent changes in the sound pressure level of the noise exert an influence on communication disruption in patients with sensorineural hearing loss.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Speech intelligibility of children with cochlear implants, tactile aids, or hearing aids.

Speech intelligibility was measured in 31 children who used the 3M/House single-channel implant (n = 12), the Nucleus 22-Channel Cochlear Implant System (n = 15), or the Tactaid II + two-channel vibrotactile aid (n = 4). The subjects were divided into subgroups based on age at onset of deafness (early or late). The speech intelligibility of the experimental subjects was compared to that of children who were profoundly hearing impaired who used conventional hearing aids (n = 12) or no sensory aid (n = 2). The subjects with early onset of deafness who received their single- or multichannel cochlear implant before age 10 demonstrated the highest speech intelligibility, whereas subjects who did not receive their device until after age 10 had the poorest speech intelligibility. There was no obvious difference in the speech intelligibility scores of these subjects as a function of type of device (implant or tactile aid). On the average, the postimplant or tactile aid speech intelligibility of the subjects with early onset of deafness was similar to that of hearing aid users with hearing levels between 100 and 110 dB HL and limited hearing in the high frequencies. The speech intelligibility of subjects with late onset of deafness showed marked deterioration after the onset of deafness with relatively large improvements by most subjects after they received a single- or multichannel implant. The one subject with late onset of deafness who used a tactile aid showed no improvement in speech intelligibility.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1995

Quantifying the relation between speech quality and speech intelligibility.

The purpose of the present research was to examine the relation between speech quality and speech intelligibility. Speech quality measurements were made using continuous discourse and a category rating procedure for the following dimensions: intelligibility, pleasantness, loudness, effort, and total impression. Measurements were made using a group of listeners with normal hearing for a set of stimulus conditions in which intelligibility varied, and for a set of stimulus conditions in which intelligibility was held constant near 100%. When ratings were made for a set of stimulus conditions in which intelligibility was allowed to vary (a) intersubject reliability was high (i.e., different listeners interpreted the dimensions in a similar manner); and (b) the speech quality dimensions of intelligibility, effort, and loudness were indistinguishable. When ratings were made for a set of stimulus conditions in which intelligibility was held constant (a) intersubject reliability was reduced, indicating that different listeners interpreted the dimensions in different ways; (b) most listeners rated each dimension differently, indicating that the dimensions were unique; and (c) across listeners, no single dimension was highly correlated with total impression. These results can be used in order to examine the relation between speech quality and speech intelligibility.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Speech intelligibility in noise: effects of fluency and hearing protector type.

This research investigated the effect of car protectors on the intelligibility of speech in noise. Listeners with normal hearing, high-frequency, and flat loss were tested. Half the subjects in each group were fluent in English and half-poorly conversant. Taped lists of 25 words were presented free field under conditions defined by the speech-to-noise ratio, spectrum of noise background, and presence of ear protection. The results showed that intelligibility decreased with speech-to-noise ratio and was poorer in crowd noise than in white noise. The protector had no effect for the normal listener, but caused a substantial decrement in those with impairment. In all groups nonfluency contributed an additional loss of 10% to 20%. Significant differences in performance were noted for different muff and plug types.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Evaluation of speech intelligibility after a secondary dehiscence operation using an artificial graft in patients with speech disorders after partial glossectomy.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate speech intelligibility after a dehiscence operation using artificial grafts for patients with speech disorders after partial glossectomy that were caused by scars resulting from the primary operation. The subjects were six men and three women, who had had a partial glossectomy for tongue cancer followed by direct closure without reconstruction. They were operated on a second time operation to mobilise the residual tongue by dividing the cicatrix. An artificial graft was applied to the wound to maintain the dehiscence. Speech intelligibility was evaluated by a standardised Japanese speech intelligibility test before, and 6 and 12 months after the second operation. The intelligibility scores significantly improved during the first 6 months after the second operation, and continued to improve slightly during the following 6 months. This study suggests that the dehiscence operation using an artificial graft could improve speech in patients after partial glossectomy.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Cochlear implants in young children: the relationship between speech perception and speech intelligibility.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the relationship between measures of speech perception and speech production after cochlear implantation of young children with profound congenital and prelingual deafness. DESIGN: A prospective study was undertaken on a consecutive group of children with profound deafness. There were 126 children at the preimplantation interval and 71, 50, 26, and 20 children, respectively, at the 2, 3, 4, and 5 yr follow-up after implantation. Speech perception and speech intelligibility were assessed using hierarchical rating scales. Spearman rank correlation coefficients were used to determine the statistical correlations. All patients were either congenitally deaf or deafened before the age of 3 yr and were implanted before age 7 yr. The patients all received the Nucleus multichannel cochlear implant system with the most appropriate speech encoding strategy. RESULTS: Speech intelligibility at 5 yr was strongly correlated with speech perception at the 2, 3, 4, and 5 yr intervals after implantation (Spearman coefficients 0.77, 0.81, 0.58, 0.58; p < or = 0.01). Speech intelligibility at the 2, 3, and 4 yr intervals also correlated in a similar manner with earlier speech perception abilities (p < or = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that speech intelligibility between 2 and 5 yr after implantation in young children with congenital and prelingual profound deafness can be predicted by measures of earlier speech perception.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1990

Evaluation of adult aphasics with the Pediatric Speech Intelligibility test.

Results of conventional adult speech audiometry may be compromised by the presence of speech/language disorders, such as aphasia. The purpose of this project was to determine the efficacy of the speech intelligibility materials and techniques developed for young children in evaluating central auditory function in aphasic adults. Eight adult aphasics were evaluated with the Pediatric Speech Intelligibility (PSI) test, a picture-pointing approach that was carefully developed to be relatively insensitive to linguistic-cognitive skills and relatively sensitive to auditory-perceptual function. Results on message-to-competition ratio (MCR) functions or performance-intensity (PI) functions were abnormal in all subjects. Most subjects served as their own controls, showing normal performance on one ear coupled with abnormal performance on the other ear. The patterns of abnormalities were consistent with the patterns seen (1) on conventional speech audiometry in brain-lesioned adults without aphasia and (2) on the PSI test in brain-lesioned children without aphasia. An exception to this general observation was an atypical pattern of abnormality on PI-function testing in the subgroup of nonfluent aphasics. The nonfluent subjects showed substantially poorer word-max scores than sentence-max scores, a pattern seen previously in only one other patient group, namely young children with recurrent otitis media. The unusually depressed word-max abnormality was not meaningfully related to clinical diagnostic data regarding the degree of hearing loss and the location and severity of the lesions or to experimental data regarding the integrity of phonologic processing abilities. The observations of ear-specific and condition-specific abnormalities suggest that the linguistically- and cognitively-simplified PSI test may be useful in the evaluation of auditory-specific deficits in the aphasic adult.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Speech intelligibility in children after cochlear implantation.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the long-term speech intelligibility of young deaf children after cochlear implantation. STUDY DESIGN: The study design was a prospective study following a large group of consecutively implanted deaf children with up to 5 years' cochlear implant use. SETTING: The study was conducted at a pediatric tertiary referral center for cochlear implantation. PATIENTS: All children in the study were congenitally deaf or deafened before 3 years of age. They each received a Nucleus multichannel cochlear implant before the age of 7 years. Eighty-four subjects were evaluated up to 5 years after cochlear implantation. INTERVENTION: Cochlear implantation followed by an intensive program of local and center-based assessment and rehabilitation was performed. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: A speech intelligibility rating scale evaluated the spontaneous speech of each child before and at yearly intervals for 5 years after implantation. RESULTS: After cochlear implantation, the difference between the speech intelligibility ratings increased significantly each year for 4 years (Mann-Whitney U-test). For the first 2 years, the average rating remained "prerecognizable words" or "unintelligible speech." It was not until the 3-year interval that the average intelligibility rating became category 3 (intelligible speech if someone concentrates and lip-reads). At the 4-year interval, 85% of children had some intelligible connected speech. This improvement continued, and at the 5-year interval, the median speech intelligibility was category 4 (intelligible speech to a listener with a little experience of deaf speech) and the mode was category 5 (intelligible speech to all listeners). CONCLUSION: Congenital and prelingually deaf children gradually develop intelligible speech that does not plateau 5 years after implantation.

Cochlear Implantation↗
PubMed2001

Balancing speech intelligibility versus sound exposure in selection of personal hearing protection equipment for Chinook aircrews.

BACKGROUND: Aircrews are often exposed to high ambient sound levels, especially in military aviation. Since long-term exposure to such noise may cause hearing damage, selection of adequate hearing protective devices is crucial. Such devices also affect speech intelligibility. When speech intelligibility and hearing protection lead to conflicting requirements, a compromise must be reached. The selection of personal equipment for RNLAF Chinook aircrews is taken as an example of this process. METHODS: Sound attenuation offered by aircrew helmets and ear plugs was measured using a standardized method. Sound attenuation results were used to calculate sound exposure. Objective predictions of speech intelligibility were calculated using the Speech Transmission Index (STI) method. Subjective preference was investigated through a survey among 28 experienced aircrew members. RESULTS: The use of ear plugs in addition to a (RNLAF standard) helmet may lead to a significant reduction of sound exposure. Using ear plugs that offer high sound attenuation, instead of using a less attenuating type, gives a little additional reduction of sound exposure, at the expense of a large reduction in speech intelligibility. Hence, it is better to use 'light' ear plugs. Better performance still is offered by Communications Earplugs, ear plugs featuring integrated miniature earphones. Results from the user preference survey correspond well with objective measurement results. CONCLUSIONS: In the case of the RNLAF Chinook, the best solution is using Communications EarPlugs in combination with a standard helmet. The Chinook case clearly illustrates that hearing protection and speech intelligibility should be treated as connected issues.

Aerospace Medicine↗
PubMed1998

Subjective judgements of clarity and intelligibility for filtered stimuli with equivalent speech intelligibility index predictions.

The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether subjective judgments of clarity or intelligibility would be rated equally among conditions in which speech was equated for predicted intelligibility (using the Speech Intelligibility Index, SII) but varied in bandwidth. Twenty listeners with normal hearing rated clarity and intelligibility for sentence material (Hearing In Noise Test) in speech-shaped noise at six paired low- and high-pass filtered conditions in which SII was equated for each pair. For three paired conditions, predicted intelligibility increased as SII increased monotonically (0.3, 0.4, 0.5). In the remaining paired conditions, SII continued to increase monotonically (0.6, 0.7, 0.8) but predicted intelligibility was held at a maximal level (> or = 95%). Predicted intelligibility was estimated from the transfer function relating SII to speech recognition scores determined in preliminary experiments. Differences in ratings between paired low- and high-pass filtered sentences did not reach statistical significance for either clarity or intelligibility, indicating that the spectral differences at equivalent SIIs did not influence the judgments for either of the two dimensions. For conditions in which predicted intelligibility increased, both clarity and intelligibility ratings increased in a similar manner. For conditions in which predicted intelligibility was maximized, intelligibility ratings remained the same statistically across conditions while clarity ratings changed modestly. Although high correlations were observed between clarity and intelligibility ratings, intelligibility ratings were consistently higher than clarity ratings for comparable conditions. The results indicated that listeners with normal hearing produced clarity and intelligibility ratings for the same speech material and experimental conditions that were highly related but differed in magnitude. Caution is required when substituting clarity for intelligibility.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Mode of communication and classroom placement impact on speech intelligibility.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the impact of classroom placement and mode of communication on speech intelligibility scores in children aged 8 to 9 years using multichannel cochlear implants. DESIGN: Classroom placement (special education, partial mainstream, and full mainstream) and mode of communication (total communication and auditory-oral) reported via parental rating scales before and 4 times after implantation were the independent variables. Speech intelligibility scores obtained at 8 to 9 years of age were the dependent variables. PARTICIPANTS: The study included 131 congenitally deafened children between the ages of 8 and 9 years who received a multichannel cochlear implant before the age of 5 years. RESULTS: Higher speech intelligibility scores at 8 to 9 years of age were significantly associated with enrollment in auditory-oral programs rather than enrollment in total communication programs, regardless of when the mode of communication was used (before or after implantation). Speech intelligibility at 8 to 9 years of age was not significantly influenced by classroom placement before implantation, regardless of mode of communication. After implantation, however, there were significant associations between classroom placement and speech intelligibility scores at 8 to 9 years of age. Higher speech intelligibility scores at 8 to 9 years of age were associated with classroom exposure to normal-hearing peers in full or partial mainstream placements than in self-contained, special education placements. CONCLUSIONS: Higher speech intelligibility scores in 8- to 9-year-old congenitally deafened cochlear implant recipients were associated with educational settings that emphasize oral communication development. Educational environments that incorporate exposure to normal-hearing peers were also associated with higher speech intelligibility scores at 8 to 9 years of age.

Child↗
PubMed1981

Evaluation of binaural hearing aids in children using localization and speech intelligibility tasks.

Because of an assumed relationship between localization and speech intelligibility in noise it has been suggested that a localization test provides a suitable measure for the evaluation of binaural aids in everyday situations. The present study shows a significant correlation (a) between binaural advantage in a localization task and the binaural advantage in speech intelligibility in noise task, and (b) between binaural advantage in judgement of separation of speech and noise and binaural advantage in a speech intelligibility in noise task. However, neither relationship was strong enough for accurate individual prediction of binaural advantages in speech intelligibility. Possible reasons for this are discussed, and the lines that further research might follow are suggested.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Speech perception and speech intelligibility in children after cochlear implantation.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the long-term speech perception and speech intelligibility of congenitally and prelingually deaf children after cochlear implantation. It was a longitudinal study following 63 congenitally or prelingually deaf children up to 5 years after implantation. They each received a nucleus multichannel cochlear implant before they were 10 years old. METHODS: Perception is evaluated using the Test for the Evaluation of Voice Perception and Production (TEPP) and concerns closed- and open-set word and sentence perception without lip-reading. The intelligibility is classified according to the Speech Intelligibility Rating (SIR). The evaluations have been made every 3 months for 1 year, then at 18 months, 2 years, 3 years and 5 years after the cochlear implantation. RESULTS: After 5 years of implantation, the median percentage of closed-words speech perception (CSW) is 95.5%-93.67% for closed-sentence speech perception (CSS) and 76.3% for open-sentence speech perception (OSS); the median Speech Intelligibility Rating is 3.83. CONCLUSIONS: Congenitally and prelingually deaf children who receive cochlear implant before the age of 10 years develop speech perception and speech intelligibility abilities. The closed-set perception progresses quickly and seems to reaching a plateau at 5 years post implantation. The improvement of open-sentence perception is not significant until the first year post implantation. The speech intelligibility improves regularly the five first year post implantation.

Audiometry, Speech↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Development of speech intelligibility in children with recurrent otitis media.

This study defined developmental functions for Pediatric Speech Intelligibility word and sentence materials presented in quiet and in competition for 25 normal children and 25 children with recurrent otitis media. Ages ranged from 24 to 56 mos. In normal children, developmental functions for Pediatric Speech Intelligibility speech materials showed earlier development of performance (1) in quiet than in competition and (2) for words than for sentences (competing condition). In children with otitis media, developmental functions were normal for both words and sentences in quiet and for sentences in competition. However, developmental functions were grossly abnormal for words in competition.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1991

Effects of a single reflection with varied horizontal angle and time delay on speech intelligibility.

Previously, almost all physical measures for estimating speech intelligibility in a room have been derived from only temporal-monaural criteria. This paper shows that speech intelligibility for a sound field with a single reflection depends not only on the temporal-monaural factor but also on the spatial-binaural factor of the sound field. Articulation tests for sound fields simulated with a single reflection of delay time delta t1 after the direct sound were conducted changing the horizontal incident angle xi of the reflection. Remarkable findings are as followings: (1) speech intelligibility (SI) decreases with increasing delay time delta t1, (2) SI increases when xi approaches 90 degrees; the horizontal angle of the reflection causes a significant effect on SI, and (3) the analysis of variance for articulation test scores clearly demonstrated that the effects of both delta t1 and xi on SI are fully independent. Concerning result (2), if listeners get a spatial separation of signals at the two ears, then the listener's capability for speech perception is assumed to be improved due to "adding" further information to the temporal pattern recognition.

Acoustics↗
PubMed2005

Developing a speech intelligibility test based on measuring speech reception thresholds in noise for English and Finnish.

A subjective test was developed suitable for evaluating the effect of mobile communications devices on sentence intelligibility in background noise. Originally a total of 25 lists, each list including 16 sentences, were developed in British English and Finnish to serve as the test stimuli representative of adult language today. The sentences, produced by two male and two female speakers, were normalized for naturalness, length, and intelligibility in each language. The sentence sets were balanced with regard to the expected lexical and phonetic distributions in the given language. The sentence lists are intended for adaptive measurement of speech reception thresholds (SRTs) in noise. In the verification of the test stimuli, SRTs were measured for ten subjects in Finnish and nine subjects in English. Mean SRTs were -2.47 dB in Finnish and -1.12 dB in English, with standard deviations of 1.61 and 2.36 dB, respectively. The mean thresholds did not vary significantly between the lists or the talkers after two lists were removed from the Finnish set and one from the English set. Thus the numbers of lists were reduced from 25 to 23 and 24, respectively. The statistical power of the test increased when thresholds were averaged over several sentence lists. With three lists per condition, the test is able to detect a 1.5-dB difference in SRTs with the probability of about 90%.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1997

Changes in speech intelligibility as a function of time and signal processing strategy for an Ineraid patient fitted with continuous interleaved sampling (CIS) processors.

OBJECTIVE: To assess changes in speech intelligibility as a function of signal processing strategy and as a function of time for one of the first two Ineraid patients in the United States fitted with a continuous interleaved sampling (CIS) signal processor. DESIGN: In Experiment 1, the patient was fitted with a CIS processor and measures of speech intelligibility were taken over a period of 4 mo. These data were compared with data collected with the Ineraid. In Experiment 2, three new signal processing strategies were tested. Measures of speech intelligibility were taken at fitting and after a week's use of the processor. In Experiment 3, the number of channels in the processor was reduced to 5, 4, and 3. Each processor was tested at fitting and after a week's use of the processor. RESULTS: In Experiment 1, immediately on fitting, the CIS processor produced better speech intelligibility for consonants, vowels, and the CID sentences than did the Ineraid. Performance improved over periods ranging from 1 to 4 mo depending on the test material. In Experiment 2, two processors produced significantly better speech intelligibility than did other processors. Most generally, performance dropped slightly when a new processor was fitted and then improved over the course of week. All of the processors produced better speech intelligibility than did the Ineraid. In Experiment 3, five channels allowed similar levels of performance as did six channels. The effect of four and three channels varied as a function of test material. Four CIS channels allowed better performance than did the four analogue channels of the Ineraid. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude 1) that CIS processors can provide much better speech intelligibility than can the analogue processor of the Ineraid; 2) that many CIS strategies, not just one, will produce better speech intelligibility than will the Ineraid; 3) that for this patient, five channels can allow as high a level of word intelligibility as can six channels; 4) that when the number of CIS and analogue channels are equated (at four), the CIS strategy provides better speech intelligibility than does the Ineraid; and 5) that speech intelligibility with CIS processors improves over periods as short as a week and as long as several months after fitting of the processor.

Aged↗