Mark A. Ericson
AL/CFBA Bldg. 441, 2610 Seventh St., Wright Patterson AFB, OH 45433-7901
The intelligibility of simultaneous speech signals from pairs of talkers was improved with spatial separation of talkers using synthetic means. The simultaneous speech signals of the talkers, male versus male, female versus female, and male versus female, were separated by 0, 22, 44, 90, 134, and 180 deg. A simple left--right (180-deg) signal separation condition was also measured. Four listeners responded to both diotic and spatially separated presentations over headphones. The listeners were randomly prompted by a call sign to respond to one of the two talkers, providing an intelligibility baseline of 0 dB signal-to-noise ratio for each test phrase. Speech maskers used were either (1) pink noise or (2) a speech babble presented over headphones or, (3) pink noise presented by loudspeakers. In general, the female talkers were the least intelligible and the male versus female pair were the most intelligible. Spatial separations of 90 deg, or more, provided up to a 25% increase in intelligibility.