THE INTELLIGIBILITY OF HELIUM-SPEECH AS A FUNCTION OF SPEECH-TO-NOISE RATIO

Abstract

Three experiments compared the intelligibilities of helium-speech and normal speech masked by loud noise. Recordings were made of 5 talkers reading intelligibility word lists. Several panels of listeners heard these recordings masked by different levels of background noise. In Experiment 1, a fatigue effect seemed at first to be present differentially for the helium-speech, suggesting that short-term auditory fatigue may occur with helium. However, Experiment 2, designed to observe the effect on intelligibility of time during listening session that material was heard, refuted the notion of short-term fatigue effects. Experiment 3 incorporated results of the first two experiments to evaluate the effect of introducing varied levels of noise upon intelligibility of helium-speech and normal speech when order of presentation of gas mix was minimized.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 31, 1968
Accession Number
AD0684777

Entities

People

  • Christine L. McKay
  • Russell L. Sergeant

Organizations

  • Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Ground and Sea Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Analysis Of Variance
  • Background Noise
  • Barometric Pressure
  • Biomedical Research
  • Classification
  • Connecticut
  • Generators
  • Intelligibility
  • Materials
  • Navy
  • Noise
  • Sound Pressure
  • Speech
  • Submarine Bases
  • Submarines
  • Tape Recording
  • Word Lists

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Speech Processing/Speech Recognition.
  • Theoretical Analysis.