The effect of speaking style adaptations on speech perception in noise by native and non-native listeners

Abstract

It is well established that non-native listeners perform worse on speech perception in noise tasks compared to native listeners. However, few studies have directly compared the effect of speaking style adaptations on speech perception in energetic and informational maskers for these two listener groups. The present study examined intelligibility of conversational (CO), clear (CS) and noise-adapted (NAS) meaningful sentences mixed with speech shaped noise (SSN) and 2-talker (2T) babble. Sentences were presented at −5 dB signal to noise ratio (SNR) to native and −3 dB SNR to non-native listeners. The results revealed that CS and NAS significantly improved word recognition in noise for both listener groups. However, the gains in intelligibility were substantially greater for native compared to non-native listeners. Word recognition was overall better in 2T babble than in SSN. Our findings confirm that both native and non-native listeners benefited from speaking style adjustments, but native listeners were better able to utilize the intelligibility-enhancing modifications. The results also suggest that informational masking in 2T babble is less disruptive than energetic masking in SSN. This may in part be due to the “glimpsing” windows through which the target speech could become more easily accessible.