NUMBER TELLING
Abstract
INTELLIGIBILITY AND CONFUSABILITY VALUES OF 16 VARIANTS OF THE English digits were studied in sufficient noise to produce about 50 per cent error. Ten speakers representing five different native-language backgrounds spoke the English digit variants to approximately 250 American listeners. The study provided 21540 responses to each digit; about half of these were responses to stimuli which had been filtered above 2800 cps. Results reveal a quite stable order of digit intelligibility which was: 5, 1, 7, 0, 6, 4, 9, 8, 2, and 3. Of the variants, THREE and FREE were equally intelligible and significantly better than TREE; OH, FOUR, FIVE, and NINE were significantly better than ZERO, FOWer, FIFE, and NINer, respectively. FIFE was somewhat superior to FIVE for speakers whose native-language was Spanish. The difference between filtered and unfiltered signals was statistically significant but hardly of practical importance. The digits (3) and (0) were the most frequent substitutions for other digits; (5) and (9) were the least frequently confused. At least one significant confusion exists for each of the digits. No digit avoids being a significant confusion for at least one other digit. Variants of the same digit tend to be associated with the same confusion. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 1960
- Accession Number
- AD0260457
Entities
People
- Henry M. Moser
- Wallace C. Fotheringham
Organizations
- Ohio State University