ISCA Archive Interspeech 2024
ISCA Archive Interspeech 2024

Effects of talker and playback rate of reverberation-induced speech on speech intelligibility of older adults

Nao Hodoshima

Speech intelligibility in noise and reverberation is generally lower for older adults (OAs) than for young adults (YAs). One solution might be the Lombard effect or reverberation-induced speech. This study investigates whether the intelligibility of reverberation-induced speech depends on talkers and playback rates for OAs. Four YAs recorded sentences under quiet (Q) and reverberation (R). In R, the reverberant speech was fed back to the talkers via headphones. The playback rate was 80% (slow), 100% (original), and 120% (fast). Twenty-four OAs carried out word identification tests in reverberation. The results showed that R was significantly more intelligible than Q for two of the four talkers. Slow speech was significantly more intelligible than original and fast speech, and original speech was significantly more intelligible than fast speech. The results suggest that reverberation-induced speech might increase the intelligibility of public-address announcements for OAs.