Korean J Otorhinolaryngol-Head Neck Surg.  2009 Apr;52(4):307-311. 10.3342/kjorl-hns.2009.52.4.307.

Effects of Various Background Noises on Speech Intelligibility of Normal Hearing Subjects

• Lee SH
• Shim HJ
• Yoon SW
• Lee KW

• KMID: 2277030
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3342/kjorl-hns.2009.52.4.307

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: In auditory tests, several kinds of background noises have been used ; multitalker babble noise, speech noise and white noise, etc. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of different types of background noises on speech intelligibility.
SUBJECTS AND METHOD
Sixty volunteers having pure-tone thresholds less than 25 dB HL participated in this study. Their ages ranged from teens to sixties with ten subjects in each age group (mean age=40+/-15.4 years, m=25, f= 35) We used three types of background noises used in this study ; multitalker babble noise using the voices of Korean speakers, speech noise using English sentences and white noise. Fifty percent recognition of signal to noise ratios (SNRs) and word recognition scores (WRSs) at -10, -5, 0 dB SNR conditions were measured at 70 dB HL of noise intensity.
RESULTS
Fifty percent recognition of SNRs on multitalker babble, speech and white noise were -12.4+/-1.4 dB, -13.7+/-1.0 dB and -15.8 +/-1.0 dB, respectively and they were significantly different each other (p< 0.05). Multitalker babble noise generated the lowest WRSs followed by speech noise and then white noise (p< 0.05).
CONCLUSION
These results support that multitalker babble noise using the voices of Korean speakers influence on normal listener's speech intelligibility more than speech noise from English sentences or white noise

Keyword

Noise; Speech intelligibility; Recognition; Signal

MeSH Terms

Adolescent
Hearing
Humans
Noise
Signal-To-Noise Ratio
Speech Intelligibility
Voice