Spatial Unmasking Effect on Speech Reception Threshold in the Median Plane

This study examined whether the spatial unmasking effect operates on speech reception thresholds (SRTs) in the median plane. SRTs were measured using an adaptive staircase procedure, with target speech sentences and speech-shaped noise maskers presented via loudspeakers at −30°, 0°, 30°, 60° and 90°...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inApplied sciences Vol. 10; no. 15; p. 5257
Main Authors Berwick, Nathan, Lee, Hyunkook
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.08.2020
Subjects
Ears & hearing
Experiments
Function analysis
Identification
Listening
median plane
Noise
spatial unmasking
Speech
speech reception threshold
Transfer functions
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Summary:This study examined whether the spatial unmasking effect operates on speech reception thresholds (SRTs) in the median plane. SRTs were measured using an adaptive staircase procedure, with target speech sentences and speech-shaped noise maskers presented via loudspeakers at −30°, 0°, 30°, 60° and 90°. Results indicated a significant median plane spatial unmasking effect, with the largest SRT gain obtained for the −30° elevation of the masker. Head-related transfer function analysis suggests that the result is associated with the energy weighting of the ear-input signal of the masker at upper-mid frequencies relative to the maskee.
ISSN:2076-3417
2076-3417
DOI:10.3390/app10155257