Development of a “Virtual Cocktail Party” for the Measurement of Speech Intelligibility in a Sound Field

This technical report describes an approach to the measurement of speech intelligibility for sentences presented in a sound field in the presence of 16-talker babble. More specifically, we detail our (1) selection and preparation of target speech materials, (2) selection and preparation of experimental babble, (3) analog instrumentation, (4) software routines for attenuator control, (5) calibration, (6) experimental subjects, and (7) experimental protocol. In the final section of this report we present speech-intelligibility data from 16 young adults (21–30 yr of age) with normal hearing sensitivity for pure-tone signals.

Key Words

Cocktail-party effect - sound field - speech-in-noise test - speech intelligibility - spatial release from masking