Auditory compensation for reverberation in normal hearing listeners

Authors

  • Jens Bo Nielsen Centre for Applied Hearing Research, Ørsted•DTU, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark
  • Torsten Dau Centre for Applied Hearing Research, Ørsted•DTU, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark

Abstract

The present study investigates the ability of the auditory system to compensate for the immediate effect of reverberation on speech intelligibility. In the experiments, the spectro-temporal properties of a speech signal are modi ed by reverberation that smears the signal. Reverberation can be viewed as a natural lowpass modulation lter and generally reduces speech intelligibility. However, recent research has shown that the auditory system appears to compensate for this effect by taking the reverberant environment into account (Watkins, 2005). This compensation mechanism is functional after a short adaptation period (less than 1 s) and enhances the ability of the auditory system to detect smeared speech modulations. In the present study, the compensation mechanism was investigated in a simulated room with a high degree of reverberation. Two experimental setups were used in order to verify the existence of compensation for reverberation, but the results of the experiments could not confirm the earlier ndings of Watkins (2005).

References

Drullman, R., Festen, J. M., and Plomp, R. (1994). “Effect of temporal envelope smearing on speech reception," J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 95, 1053-64.

Houtgast, T., and Steeneken, H. J. M. (1985). “A review of the MTF concept in room acoustics and its use for estimating speech intelligibility in auditoria," J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 77, 1069-1077.

Watkins, A. J. (2005). “Perceptual compensation for effects of reverberation in speech identification,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 118, 249-262.

Additional Files

Published

2007-12-15

How to Cite

Nielsen, J. B., & Dau, T. (2007). Auditory compensation for reverberation in normal hearing listeners. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Auditory and Audiological Research, 1, 397–404. Retrieved from https://proceedings.isaar.eu/index.php/isaarproc/article/view/2007-38

Issue

Vol. 1 (2007): Auditory Signal Processing in Hearing Impaired Listeners

Section

2007/4. Speech perception and processing

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