Subject: Re: Rationale for Speech Tests From: "Hornsby, Benjamin Wade Young" <ben.hornsby@xxxxxxxx> Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:51:00 -0500 List-Archive:<http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=AUDITORY>Hi Enrique, Not sure about Q2 but here are a few refs that suggest your assumption in Q1 is accurate (for the most part): Hawkins, J. E. and Stevens, S. S. (1950). "The masking of pure tones and of speech by white noise." Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 22: 6-13. Plomp, R. (1986). "A signal-to-noise ratio model for the speech-reception threshold of the hearing impaired." Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 29(2): 146-154. Studebaker, G., Gilmore, C. and Sherbecoe, R. (1993). "Performance-intensity functions at absolute and masked thresholds." Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 93(6): 3418-3421. At the same time there are suggestions that may not always hold true at high levels. Studebaker, G., Sherbecoe, R., McDaniel, D. and Gwaltney, C. (1999). "Monosyllabic word recognition at higher-than-normal speech and noise levels." Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 105(4): 2431-2444. Good Luck, Ben -----Original Message----- From: AUDITORY - Research in Auditory Perception [mailto:AUDITORY@xxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Enrique A. Lopez-Poveda Sent: Friday, April 20, 2012 3:39 AM To: AUDITORY@xxxxxxxx Subject: Rationale for Speech Tests Dear all, I would appreciate your help on the following two questions. Q1. Conventional speech perception tests are run using a fixed speech (or noise) level and varying the speech-to-noise ratio (SNR); the implicit assumption is that the speech reception threshold (SRT) is independent of the absolute speech or noise levels. I would appreciate some references that proof this statement and justify this procedure (PDFs of the appropriate references would be even better). Q2. Can speech psychometric functions (that is, functions representing percent correct identification versus SNR) be modeled using signal detection theory? I would also appreciate references. Thank you so much in advance, - Enrique -- Enrique A. Lopez-Poveda, Ph.D. Instituto de Neurociencias de Castilla y Leon Universidad de Salamanca Calle Pintor Fernando Gallego 1, 37007 Salamanca, Spain Phone: (+34)923294500 ext. 1957; Fax: (+34) 923294750 http://web.usal.es/ealopezpoveda Skype: ealopezpoveda