Department of Psychological Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, USA.
Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA.
J Acoust Soc Am. 2019 Aug;146(2):1065. doi: 10.1121/1.5121314.
Greater informational masking is observed when the target and masker speech are more perceptually similar. Fundamental frequency (f0) contour, or the dynamic movement of f0, is thought to provide cues for segregating target speech presented in a speech masker. Most of the data demonstrating this effect have been collected using digitally modified stimuli. Less work has been done exploring the role of f0 contour for speech-in-speech recognition when all of the stimuli have been produced naturally. The goal of this project was to explore the importance of target and masker f0 contour similarity by manipulating the speaking style of talkers producing the target and masker speech streams. Sentence recognition thresholds were evaluated for target and masker speech that was produced with either flat, normal, or exaggerated speaking styles; performance was also measured in speech spectrum shaped noise and for conditions in which the stimuli were processed through an ideal-binary mask. Results confirmed that similarities in f0 contour depth elevated speech-in-speech recognition thresholds; however, when the target and masker had similar contour depths, targets with normal f0 contours were more resistant to masking than targets with flat or exaggerated contours. Differences in energetic masking across stimuli cannot account for these results.
当目标语音和掩蔽语音在感知上更相似时，会观察到更大的信息掩蔽。基频 (f0) 轮廓，或 f0 的动态运动，被认为为在语音掩蔽中呈现的目标语音提供了分离的线索。大多数证明这种效果的数据都是使用数字修改的刺激收集的。当所有刺激都是自然产生时，探索 f0 轮廓对语音内语音识别的作用的工作较少。该项目的目标是通过操纵产生目标和掩蔽语音流的说话者的说话风格来探索目标和掩蔽 f0 轮廓相似性的重要性。评估了使用平坦、正常或夸张说话风格产生的目标和掩蔽语音的句子识别阈值；还在语音频谱成形噪声中以及在通过理想二进制掩蔽处理刺激的情况下测量了性能。结果证实，f0 轮廓深度的相似性提高了语音内语音识别的阈值；然而，当目标和掩蔽具有相似的轮廓深度时，具有正常 f0 轮廓的目标比具有平坦或夸张轮廓的目标更能抵抗掩蔽。刺激之间的能量掩蔽差异不能解释这些结果。
