bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The loudness model used in ISO532-3: Development, evaluation and prospects
Authors: Moore Brian C.
Published: April 2019

ISO 532-2 is based on the loudness model for stationary sounds described by Moore and Glasberg [JASA (2007)]. This model is similar to that in ANSI S3.4-2007, except that the model in ISO 532-2 incorporates binaural inhibition: a strong input to one ear in a given frequency region reduces the effective level of a weaker input to the other ear in nearby frequency regions. ISO 532-3 has been proposed as an extension to ISO 532-2 to deal with time-varying sounds. It generates predictions of short-term loudness, the loudness of a short-segment of sound such as a word in a sentence or a single note in a piece of music, and of long-term loudness, the loudness of a longer segment of sound, lasting 1–5 s, such as a whole sentence or a musical phrase. The model gives reasonably accurate predictions of the overall loudness of technical sounds (e.g., factory noises), of speech whose dynamic range has been compressed or expanded, and of sounds whose time pattern and spectra differ at the two ears. However, the model needs to be extended to generate predictions of the overall loudness impression of a sound environment over a period of several minutes to an hour.
Psychoacoustic Roughness Standard
Authors: Sottek Roland , Becker Julian
Published: April 2019

Roughness of acoustic signals has been a focus of sound design for many years. A rough sound can contribute to a sporty character of an engine, but also to a strong annoyance. It is desired that a sound fits the product. This goal should be achievable as early as possible in the development process. For this purpose, perceptual evaluations in combination with model calculations and simulation tools must be used. Existing roughness calculation models work well for synthetic signals such as modulated tones and noise signals. However, the roughness prediction is much more challenging for technical sounds because of the more complex spectral and temporal patterns. Although the consideration of roughness is very common in practice, there is still no standardized roughness calculation method. This paper describes a method that is based on a model of human hearing according to Sottek. It has been optimized for non-linear processing and the weighting of the modulation spectra. Additionally, a proposal for calculating a binaural single value of roughness is given. This model allows to predict the perceived roughness very well. The standardization of this roughness calculation method is planned both as a German standard (DIN) and as part of ECMA-74.
Inconsistencies between the predicted qualities of enhanced speech signals from two objective metrics
Authors: Zhang Zhuohuang , Shen Yi
Published: April 2019

Objective speech-quality metrics have been used widely as a tool to evaluate the performance of speech enhancement algorithms. Two widely adopted metrics are Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality (PESQ) and Hearing-Aid Speech Quality Index (HASQI). While PESQ is based on a highly-simplified phenomenological model of auditory perception for normal-hearing listeners, HASQI contains processing steps that represent the physiology of the auditory periphery and is able to capture the perceived speech quality from hearing-impaired listeners. In the current study, the performance of deep-learning-based speech enhancement algorithms was evaluated using the two objective metrics. The algorithms were implemented so that the audio features were represented in either a linear frequency scale or a nonlinear frequency scale (i.e., Mel scale). Higher speech quality for linear- than Mel-scale processing was predicted by HASQI, but PESQ was less sensitive to the difference in frequency scale. To resolve the discrepancies between the two metrics, a behavioral experiment was conducted following the ITU recommended procedure for assessing speech quality (ITU-R BS.1534-1). Listeners strongly preferred the enhanced speech using linear- over Mel-scale processing, which is consistent with predictions from HASQI. The sources of the discrepancies between PESQ and HASQI were also explored via further acoustic analyses.
Reliability and validity of sound quality metrics versus objectivity
Authors: Genuit Klaus
Published: April 2019

Often it is mentioned to get an objective measurement of the subjective evaluation. The result is a sound quality metric. The terms subjective and objective are traditionally associated with aspects related to human perception and physical measures respectively. Objectivity describes the independency of test results from the respective researcher, reliability considers whether the same results would be achieved, if the research procedure would be repeated, validity means whether a method measures what it is intended to measure. Physical measurements could have a high reliability but low validity, whereas perceptual measurements often possess a relatively low reliability but relatively high validity. For a sound quality metric, the use of predictors supported by theoretical considerations and plausibility is very important. Furthermore, a robustness analysis is needed indicating that the metric is not very susceptible to choice of input data. Be aware, the use of statistics does not replace thinking; the use of predictors must be plausible or needs theoretical background. Examples of typical sound quality metrics will be given.
Sound quality metric indicators of rotorcraft noise annoyance using multilevel regression analysis
Authors: Boucher Matthew , Krishnamurthy Siddhartha , Christian Andrew , Rizzi Stephen A.
Published: April 2019

It is hypothesized that sound quality metrics, particularly loudness, sharpness, tonality, impulsiveness, fluctuation strength, and roughness, could all be possible indicators of the reported annoyance to helicopter noise. To test this hypothesis, a psychoacoustic test was recently conducted in which subjects rated their annoyance levels to synthesized helicopter sounds [Krishnamurthy, InterNoise2018, Paper 1338]. After controlling for loudness, linear regression identified sharpness and tonality as important factors in predicting annoyance, followed by fluctuation strength. Current work focuses on multilevel regression techniques in which the regression slopes and intercepts are assumed to take on normal distributions across subjects. The importance of each metric is evaluated one-by-one, and the variation among subjects is evaluated using simple models. Then, more complete models are investigated, which include the combination of selected metrics and random effects. While the conclusions from linear regression analysis are affirmed by multilevel analysis, other important effects emerge. In particular, a random intercept is shown to be more important than a random slope. In this framework, the relative importance of sound quality metrics is re-examined, and the potential for the modeling of human annoyance to helicopter noise based on sound quality metrics is explored.
Identifying metrics to predict annoyance due to Mach-cutoff flight ground signatures
Authors: Ortega Nicholas D. , Vigeant Michelle , Sparrow Victor
Published: April 2019

Theoretically, Mach-cutoff flight under ideal atmospheric conditions could lead to boomless supersonic flight observed under the flight path on the ground. Such ideal atmospheric conditions refract the sonic boom waves upwards at the caustic line, so they do not reach the ground. This presentation describes the perception of the evanescent sound field below the flight path. The work investigates perceptual attributes and metrics related to these unique sounds. Annoyance and three other perceptual factors (“Thunderous,” “Rumbly,” and “Swooshing”) were analyzed through subjective testing using pair-wise comparison. Stimuli used were from recordings made during NASA’s “Farfield Investigation of No-boom Thresholds” (FaINT). Linear regression with principal component analysis indicated which perceptual factors contribute to annoyance, and stepwise regression identified candidate metrics for predicting annoyance. Traditional loudness metrics (i.e., weighted Sound Exposure Level) were analyzed alongside sonic-boom specific metrics (i.e., Perceived Loudness) and sound quality metrics (i.e., Sharpness). [Work supported by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration Office of Environment and Energy through ASCENT, the FAA Center of Excellence for Alternative Jet Fuels and the Environment, Project 42 through FAA Award No. 13-C-AJFE-PSU under the supervision of Sandy Liu. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the FAA.]
Comparison of sonic boom noise metrics from predictions and measurements under low atmospheric turbulence conditions
Authors: Loubeau Alexandra , Doebler William
Published: April 2019

Six noise metrics have been identified as candidates for quantifying ground sonic boom levels from overflight of supersonic aircraft. Each of these metrics (PL, ASEL, BSEL, DSEL, ESEL, and ISBAP) has previously been investigated in meta-analyses using laboratory study data corresponding to perception of sonic booms in outdoor and indoor environments. These metrics are now computed and analyzed for a set of recorded outdoor sonic boom signatures under low atmospheric turbulence conditions. Predictions of the ground signatures are also computed, without inclusion of turbulence effects, and metrics are compared between measurements and predictions. Metrics least sensitive to atmospheric turbulence effects are identified as potentially more robust for quantifying the sonic boom level from a supersonic aircraft.
Stevens perceived levels of common impulsive noises, sonic booms, and sonic thumps
Authors: Doebler William , Rathsam Jonathan
Published: April 2019

NASA’s X-59 Quiet Supersonic Technology low boom flight demonstrator aircraft is being designed to produce a shaped sonic thump of 75 dB Perceived Level (PL) at the ground. The PL metric was chosen because it correlates well with human perception of sonic booms both outdoors and indoors. Members of the public often ask how loud 75 dB PL is. To communicate this level in terms of more familiar sounds, a PL reference scale was developed. Common impulsive sounds were recorded, and their PLs were computed. Some of the various impulsive sounds include distant thunder, basketball bounces, and car door slams (79, 81, and 89 dB PL, respectively). Concorde’s 105 dB PL traditional N-wave sonic boom is also included in the reference scale. Additionally, the impulsive sounds’ energy spectral densities and sone spectra are compared to that of a simulated X-59 ground waveform.
Similarities and differences in infrasound propagation effects between arctic and temperate environments
Authors: Swearingen Michelle E. , McComas Sarah , Wilson D. K. , Ostashev Vladimir
Published: April 2019

Meteorological conditions in an arctic environment differ significantly from those in a temperate environment. Atmospheric phenomena particular to polar regions, including wind patterns such as the polar vortex and low-level jets above strongly stable layers, strong temperature and humidity gradients, and density currents, could have unique impacts on infrasound propagation that are not observed in temperate locations. In this study, parabolic-equation simulations of sound propagation are performed using measured meteorological conditions for summer and winter conditions in temperate and arctic locations. The similarities and differences in environmental conditions between these two locations and their relative impact on the predicted transmission loss are examined. For summer conditions, a comparison to measured data from explosive sources is performed for both temperate and arctic locations.
Use of the spectral-finite element method for infrasound propagation in a 3D heterogeneous environment
Authors: Burch Katrina , Swearingen Michelle E. , Alter Ross E.
Published: April 2019

The use of the spectral element method (SEM), as implemented in the open-source software SpecFEM3D, is explored for the application of longitudinal wave propagation. Infrasound, <20 Hz, propagation using local atmospheric data and a numerical weather forecast model through a heterogeneous environment is examined. The spectral-finite element method simulates acoustic and seismic waves by particle displacement in the earth and velocity potential through the atmosphere. This method also allows for inclusion of air-to-ground coupling plus realistic topography. Modifications to the code that allow for a moving atmosphere are described. Models are designed at local distances no greater than 15 km. Furthermore, high density/velocity regions for lateral heterogeneities are implemented. Absorbing boundary conditions are applied to each of the model’s sides. Simulation results are compared to real-world data collected at separate test sites and discussed. This presentation will discuss the applicability of SpecFEM3D to realistic infrasound modeling.
Acoustic wave propagation in a toroidal waveguide carrying a mean flow
Authors: Thompson Charles , Kamal Sarah , Abdulmagid Zaineb , Haile Eyobel , Najjuuko Samusha , Araujo Carlos
Published: April 2019

This paper describes the analysis of acoustic wave propagation in an attenuating toroidal waveguide carrying a circumferentially directed mean flow. The disposition of the standing pressure waves driven into resonance by time harmonic excitation is of particular interest. The relationship between the mean flow velocity amplitude and location of peak pressure response relative to the source position is evaluated. The conditions required for non-reciprocal scattering behavior is given.
Factors affecting speech-in-noise and speech-in-speech recognition for school-age children with hearing loss
Authors: Leibold Lori , Browning Jenna , McCreery Ryan W. , Buss Emily
Published: April 2019

Children with hearing loss require a more advantageous SNR than children with normal hearing to achieve comparable masked speech recognition performance. Although children with hearing loss continue to have difficulties even when appropriately fitted with hearing aids, individual differences are often substantial. This study evaluated the influence of age, degree of hearing loss, aided audibility, and daily hearing aid use on speech-in-noise and speech-in-speech recognition on a sample of 47 children (5-17 years) with bilateral, sensorineural hearing loss. Age-matched children with normal hearing were also tested. Each child completed open-set monosyllabic word recognition in two masker conditions; speech-shaped noise and two-talker speech. Thresholds for 50% correct were measured in each masker using an adaptive tracking procedure. Compared to children with normal hearing, thresholds for children with hearing loss were elevated by an average of 7.4 dB in the noise masker and 6.5 dB in the speech masker. Preliminary results indicate that both age and aided audibility were significant predictors of performance for children with hearing loss in both masker conditions. Hearing aid use was a significant predictor of performance in noise. Degree of hearing loss was not associated with performance in either masker when aided audibility was taken into account.
Developmental hearing loss in conjunction with early life stress: Perceptual deficits and central auditory correlates
Authors: Rosen Merri , Ye Yi , Green David B. , Mattingly Michelle M.
Published: April 2019

In children with otitis media, the conductive hearing loss (CHL) accompanying infection is a risk factor for later problems with speech perception. These perceptual deficits can persist long after auditory thresholds return to normal, suggesting they may be mediated by changes within the central auditory system. Using animal models of developmental CHL, we have demonstrated perceptual deficits for several temporally-varying signals that comprise speech. Furthermore, these perceptual deficits are correlated with impaired encoding in auditory cortex, indicating that central changes emerge from early auditory deprivation. In our transient developmental CHL model, which mimics the intermittent bouts of hearing loss experienced by children with otitis media, deficits are much alleviated by adulthood. However, early-life stress (ELS) has been described as an additional risk factor for speech problems arising from otitis media. Our data indicate that ELS alone induces deficits in the perception of temporally varying signals. Furthermore, animals experiencing both early transient CHL and ELS have perceptual deficits lasting into adulthood, the magnitude of which is greater than the sum of the individual deficits. These results raise the possibility that early life stress, alone or in conjunction with early CHL, may adverely impact speech perception in humans.
Consequences of auditory experience and cochlear implant stimulation on tuning and other measures obtained in pre-lingually deaf children and postlingually deaf adults
Authors: Arenberg Julie G. , Jahn Kelly N. , Devries Lindsay A. , DiNino Mishaela
Published: April 2019

Children and adults with moderate to severe hearing loss may obtain cochlear implants (CIs) to restore auditory perception, but auditory development differs among them. We have compared various peripheral measures across CI listeners differing in etiology, age of onset and duration of hearing loss, and duration of CI use. Several measures assess the efficacy with which CI electrodes activate their target auditory neurons in individuals with varying hearing demographics. In addition to peripheral contributions to auditory perception, central reorganization might occur when the auditory nerve is stimulated with coarse, electrical input from CIs. Evidence from neurophysiological studies in cats suggest that the central representation of spectral/spatial resolution is altered by chronic CI stimulation. In humans, psychophysical tuning curves might reflect both the spread of electrical current in the cochlea and the central representation of electrical stimuli. Understanding how chronic, electrical stimulation during auditory system development affects spectral resolution may be useful for optimizing CI programming in children and adults.
Neural correlates of sound-learning experiences in the auditory system: Translational candidates for hearing rehabilitation
Authors: Bieszczad Kasia M.
Published: April 2019

A major disconnect between traditional auditory perception research and recent neuroscience is the high propensity in the auditory system for neuroplasticity. Altered processing of reward-associated sound stimuli can contribute to adaptive behavior, such as hearing, listening, and attending appropriately to sound cues. I will the present work from animal models of learning-induced neuroplasticity in the cortical and subcortical auditory system. The data show how receptive fields and tonotopic maps in primary auditory cortex (A1) as well as the auditory brainstem response (ABR) can change when adult animals trained by pairing a tone with the availability to obtain reward alters sound coding in the auditory system. Over the course of conditioning, increases and reductions, respectively, in ABR amplitude and peak latencies predict how well animals can pick out the learned sound-frequency acoustic cue from other frequencies following conditioning. Furthermore, receptive fields in A1 have narrower tuning for a remembered sound frequency—and only in animals who successfully remember that frequency over others assessed by behavioral test. Therefore, learned sounds are preferentially processed over novel and distractor sounds following conditioning. Significant behavioral preferences for learned tones may be due, in part, to the observed changes in auditory processing across the auditory system.
Neural sensitivity to dynamic binaural cues: Human electroencephalogram and chinchilla single-unit responses
Authors: Singh Ravinderjit , Bharadwaj Hari M. , Sayles Mark
Published: April 2019

Animals encounter dynamic binaural timing information in broadband sounds such as speech and background noise due to moving sound sources, self motion, or reverberation. Most physiological studies of interaural time delay (ITD) or interaural correlation (IAC) sensitivity have used static stimuli; neural sensitivity to dynamic ITD and IAC is rarely systematically addressed. We used a system-identification approach using maximum-length sequences (MLS) to characterize neural responses to dynamically changing ITDs and IACs in broadband sounds. Responses were recorded from humans (electroencephalogram; EEG) and from single neurons in terminally anesthetized chinchillas (auditory nerve fibers; ANFs). Chinchilla medial superior olive (MSO) responses were simulated based on binaural coincidence from recorded ANF spike times in response to left- and right-channel input. Estimated ITD and IAC transfer functions were low-pass, with corner frequencies in the range of hundreds of Hz. Human EEG-based transfer functions, likely reflecting cortical responses, were also low-pass, but with much lower corner frequencies in the region of tens of Hz. Human behavioral detection of dynamic IAC extended beyond 100 Hz consistent with the higher brainstem limits. On the other hand, binaural unmasking effects were only evident for low-frequency ITD/IAC dynamics in the masking noise.
Speech-in-noise recognition examined in individuals with normal hearing sensitivity and tinnitus using behavioral and brain imaging methods
Authors: Husain Fatima T. , Tai Yihsin
Published: April 2019

Although we know tinnitus can cause concentration problems, its contribution to communication difficulties has not been well-studied. In a series of experiments, we have investigated Speech-in-noise (SiN) performance, in those with tinnitus and normal hearing sensitivity using a variety of methods, including behavioral, otoacoustic emissions, structural MRI and in a proposed study, ERP/ EEG. We found that tinnitus patients with normal hearing sensitivity did not have a general speech-in-noise deficit (Tai and Husain, JARO, 2018). Instead, our findings indicated that the tinnitus group performed significantly worse only under the 5-dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) condition. Additionally, the SiN performance in tinnitus patients was found to be significantly correlated with the perceptual factors related to tinnitus, such as perceived loudness, and was worse in the left ear. We are currently investigating (1) how the left ear appears to be more affected in tinnitus by using structural MRI and (2) whether there is any correlation between tinnitus pitch and consonant recognition. For both the latter studies, we are also contrasting the normal hearing tinnitus group with a hearing loss tinnitus group and other control groups.
Characterizing noise-induced hidden hearing loss in veterans
Authors: Bramhall Naomi
Published: April 2019

Cochlear synaptopathy, the partial loss of auditory nerve synapses onto inner hair cells, has been proposed as a possible source of hyperacusis, some forms of tinnitus, and difficulty understanding speech in background noise. In animal models, cochlear synaptopathy is associated with a reduction in the amplitude of wave I of the auditory brainstem response (ABR) and can occur even when auditory thresholds are normal. This presentation will discuss noise exposure-related changes to several auditory physiological measures, including the ABR, in young military Veterans with clinically normal pure tone thresholds. Veterans show differences from non-Veteran controls even after statistically adjusting for group differences in sex and otoacoustic emissions, suggestive of synaptic or neuronal loss. While these physiological changes do not appear to be associated with decreased performance on standard speech-in-noise tests, they are associated with the report of frequent or constant tinnitus. Although post-mortem histological analysis would be necessary for confirmation, these data are consistent with animal models of cochlear synaptopathy and suggest that synaptopathy or “hidden hearing loss” may occur in response to high intensity noise exposure in humans and be correlated with tinnitus.
Using perceptually relevant speech stimuli for making physiological measurements of the human auditory brainstem
Authors: Maddox Ross K.
Published: April 2019

Speech perception is one of the most important functions of the auditory system. The brainstem is an essential part of this process. While studies of natural speech processing typically employ behavioral tasks, and more recently cortical electroencephalography, studies of the human brainstem have been limited (by necessity) to short stimuli like clicks, tonebursts, and single syllables. We recently described a method for presenting continuous naturally uttered speech and deriving the auditory brainstem response. This method makes it possible to create engaging tasks using natural speech while making simultaneous physiological measurements, with applications to a wide range of scientific questions. One such question, with a history of mixed findings, is that of selective attention’s role in brainstem processing. We will discuss our work using the speech-derived auditory brainstem response in a two-talker listening task. In keeping with history, our results seem to differ from those of other recent studies using a similar technique. We will also discuss preliminary work at adapting the technique for audiological purposes, in hopes that using speech stimuli will provide a more accurate clinical predictor of speech perception.
Effects of talker variability on categorization of spectrally degraded vowels
Authors: Dickey Emily , Stilp Christian
Published: April 2019

When spectral properties differ between earlier (context) and later (target) sounds, categorization of later sounds becomes biased through spectral contrast effects (SCEs). Recent work has shown that talker variability diminishes SCEs: shifts in vowel categorization were smaller when context sentences were spoken by 200 talkers than one talker [Assgari and Stilp, JASA (2015)]. CI users’ speech categorization is also influenced by SCEs [Feng and Oxenham, JASA (2018)] but are known to struggle with talker discrimination. Here, we tested whether talker variability affected context effects in spectrally degraded speech perception. Listeners categorized target vowels varying from “ih” as in “bit” to “eh” as in “bet” following 200 context sentences spoken by one or 200 talkers (from Assgari and Stilp, 2015). Sentences had 5-dB spectral peaks added to low-F1 (100–400 Hz) or high-F1 (550–850 Hz) frequencies (to produce SCEs) then were noise vocoded at different spectral resolutions. At 4 and 8 channels, the experiment was too difficult to produce reliable results (flat categorization functions). At 12 and 24 channels, SCEs occurred but did not significantly differ across one-talker and 200-talker conditions. Talker variability does not appear to affect perception of spectrally degraded speech in the same way it does for normal-hearing listeners.
The role of gender expectations on word recognition
Authors: Pearson Dylan V. , Bent Tessa
Published: April 2019

Socio-indexical and linguistic information bi-directionally interact during speech processing. Information about a speaker’s age, gender, or ethnicity, conveyed through speech or visual cues, can influence how acoustic-phonetic cues are mapped to phoneme categories. For example, in McGowan (2015), Chinese-accented English sentences were presented along with a Chinese face (congruent), Caucasian face (incongruent), or no detailed visual information. Intelligibility scores were significantly higher in the congruent than the incongruent condition. Here, we investigate whether similar effects are observed for talker gender. Participants orthographically transcribed sentences mixed with noise from native American English male and female talkers. A gender congruent or incongruent visual face prime was presented before each sentence. In a control condition, different participants completed the task without the inclusion of visual face primes. Results showed that female talkers were significantly more intelligible than male talkers. Further, a gender congruency benefit was observed for female talkers, but not for male talkers. No incongruency cost was found; intelligibility scores in the incongruent and no-face control conditions did not differ. Although congruency effects were only observed with female talkers, the results suggest that expectations about speaker gender can influence word recognition accuracy similar to previously reported ethnicity effects.
Seeing is believing: The role of the visual stimulus in perception of rounded vowels in Canadian French
Authors: Sances John M.
Published: April 2019

For face-to-face communication, the visual stimulus has been shown to be important in speech perception. For vowels, lip protrusion of rounded vowels is the most visually salient signal. Rounding is a contrastive feature of French vowels, both front and back. Tests of native French speakers’ lip-reading ability show that front rounded vowels are perceived poorly; the vowel perceived tends to be the back rounded counterpart (Tseva and Cathiard, 1990). Other work (Benoit et al., 1994) has found that native French speakers often perceive the auditory signal for front rounded /y/ as /i/, the unrounded version. Adding visual information to the stimulus drastically increases accuracy. Another study corroborates this in showing that rounding is the least salient perceivable feature in the auditory stimulus, but the most salient in the visual stimulus (Robert-Ribes et al., 1998). The current work extends these findings in a comprehensive experiment using audio, visual, and audio-visual stimuli with the two sources both matched and mismatched. As found previously, rounding was the most salient feature visually. However, rounding was also very salient in the auditory stimulus, contradicting previous research. In the audio-visual mismatched stimuli, listeners tended to favor the auditory signal over the visual signal almost exclusively.
Speaker-listener dialect differences and spoken word recognition: Evidence from massive auditory lexical decision
Authors: Nenadic Filip , Kelley Matthew C. , Tucker Benjamin V.
Published: April 2019

The difficulty associated with perceiving an unfamiliar dialect has been shown in several studies using novel dialects, synthesized vowels, or recorded sentences (e.g., Goslin et al., 2012; Wright and Souza, 2012; Maye et al., 2007). One of the goals of the Massive Auditory Lexical Decision dataset (Tucker et al., 2018) is to investigate the effects of speaker-listener dialect mismatches on spoken word recognition. In three separate auditory lexical decision experiments, monolingual native speakers of English from different dialect regions (231 speakers of western Canadian English recruited in Edmonton, Alberta; 77 speakers of southwestern American English recruited in Tucson, Arizona; and 53 speakers of eastern Canadian English recruited in Halifax, Nova Scotia) each responded to a subset of the same word and pseudoword stimuli recorded by one male speaker of western Canadian English. Therefore, some of the participants had greater experience with the speaker’s dialect than others, where the Edmonton participants had the most experience, the Tucson participants had the least, and the Halifax participants were in the middle. We discuss the results of the comparison of responses from these three dialect groups and their implications to speech perception and comprehension of less familiar dialects.
Investigating the comprehension and perception of reduced speech with pupillary response
Authors: Tucker Benjamin V. , Porretta Vincent , Mukai Yoichi
Published: April 2019

Spontaneous, casual speech is highly variable, in part due to reduction processes. Listeners handle these reductions in everyday communication; however, these forms present challenges for models of speech perception and lexical processing. Previous research has found that reaction times to reduced word-medial stops are longer, indicating that they are more difficult to process than words with unreduced word-medial stops (Tucker, 2011). The current study examines spoken word processing (as measured by pupil dilation) of reduced and unreduced word-medial stops to determine (a) if the pupillary response to reduced forms corresponds to reaction time results and (b) when in time any differences emerge. Thirty-nine native speakers of North American English completed a listen-and-repeat task in which 80 isolated disyllabic reduced and unreduced word-medial /d/ and /g/ items (40 of each phoneme) were presented. The pupil size data and speech productions are analyzed and will be reported. The results indicate significantly greater pupil dilation for reduced /d/ and /g/. Words containing /d/ elicited greater dilation than those containing /g/, for reduced and unreduced forms. This suggests that, although word-medial stop reduction is frequent in English, an increased processing load is incurred, mirroring previous reaction time results.
Experienced listeners’ differential perception of enhancing and non-enhancing cue pairs
Authors: Yang Meng
Published: April 2019

The perception of a pair of enhancing cues, pitch and breathiness, and non-enhancing cues, pitch and vowel duration, were compared in a cue-shifting experiment with Hani listeners who have experience with both cue pairs in the same tense-lax contrast. Results show that, when the correlation between the non-enhancing cues was the reverse of their experience, it was equally difficult for Hani listeners to shift attention from pitch to vowel duration as from vowel duration to pitch. For the enhancing cues, difficulty with cue-shifting was asymmetric; shifting from pitch to breathiness was easy, but shifting from breathiness to pitch was difficult. This asymmetry may occur because the perceptual dependence between pitch and breathiness is unidirectional: breathiness is associated with pitch but not vice versa. Thus, listeners experience interference only when shifting attention from breathiness to pitch. The difference between two cue pairs and the direction of asymmetry found for the enhancing cue pair is consistent with earlier results from English listeners who do not have phonemic experience with either pair. Collectively, these results indicate that enhancing cues are perceived differently from non-enhancing cues, even when listeners’ language experience with cue pairs is equated.
Segmental and suprasegmental communicative information: Speech versus emotion recognition thresholds
Authors: Morgan Shae D.
Published: April 2019

Effective communication not only depends on what is said (segmental information), but how it is said (suprasegmental information). Research has clearly demonstrated the impact that intelligible segmental information has on communication. Less studied, however, is the availability of suprasegmental information during communicative interactions. Tests of speech recognition or word discrimination are commonly used to assess segmental information in the speech signal. No similar tests have been employed to detect the threshold for detection of suprasegmental information in speech. In this study, we examined thresholds of suprasegmental information (i.e., talker emotional state recognition) and compared them with thresholds obtained for segmental information (i.e., speech recognition). Implications will be discussed, including the availability of suprasegmental features of speech at levels below the threshold of segmental speech recognition. These results suggest that after speech in a signal becomes unintelligible, communication may still occur through the transmission of suprasegmental information, such as the talker’s emotional state.
Experimentally testing the epenthetic bias in loanword adaptation
Authors: Jaggers Zachary
Published: April 2019

In loanword adaptation, epenthesis is the favored way to make non-native sound sequences pronounceable, over other options like deletion or substitution (Paradis and LaCharité, 1997). This epenthetic bias is also apparent at the phonetic level, such as the phonologization of excrescent bursts and vocoids as full vowels (Kang, 2003; Davidson, 2007). It is possible that loanword status in and of itself induces this bias, whether or not the source form of interest would be illicit in the speaker’s native sound system. Weinberger’s (1994) Recoverability Principle suggests that second-language learners prefer to preserve or insert sound material due to less awareness of what may be expendable while retaining word recoverability. The epenthetic bias may therefore hold even for sound sequences available in a speaker’s native language but which they consider to be embedded in a word from a foreign language. The current study tests this prediction. Listeners transcribe nonce words manipulated along a [CCVC]-[CəCVC] continuum in which, crucially, both ends of the continuum are licit in their native language. Surrounding speech is manipulated between two framings of the nonce word as either an unfamiliar word in the native language or a word from a foreign language to test whether the latter framing induces a preference for  transcription. This shines light on the phonetic roots of a common phonological pattern and how contextually mediated these are.
Investigating the conditions on target-context assimilation in speech sound categorization
Authors: Rysling Amanda , Kingston John
Published: April 2019

Many studies have shown that listeners perceptually differentiate target sounds in categorization tasks from their neighboring context sounds, but some have shown that targets are perceptually assimilated to their contexts. We test the hypothesis that differentiation occurs in context-target order because the context is taken as the criterion for categorizing the target, but assimilation occurs in target-context order because the context's acoustics are parsed as target information. In our experiments, the target was a labial-to-coronal consonant continuum or a front-to-back vowel continuum in VC and CV strings, and the contexts were the other continuum's endpoints. As the second sound in VC or CV, the target differentiated from the preceding context: listeners responded "labial" or "back" more often after front vowels and coronal consonants, respectively. With a target V in VC, the target assimilated to the following context: listeners responded "back" more often before labial consonants. For C in CV, some listeners assimilated the consonant to the following vowel: they responded "labial" more often before back vowels. Others instead differentiated the consonant from the vowel: they responded "coronal" more often before back vowels. Follow-up experiments will determine the conditions in which a consonant assimilates to or differentiates from a following vowel.
Individual differences in distributional learning for speech: What's ideal for ideal observers?
Authors: Monto Nicholas R. , Theodore Rachel M.
Published: April 2019

Research demonstrates that efficient speech perception is supported by listeners’ ability to dynamically modify the mapping to speech sounds to reflect cumulative experience with talkers’ input distributions. Here we test the hypothesis that higher-level receptive language ability is linked to adaptation to low-level distributional cues in speech input. Listeners completed two blocks of phonetic categorization for stimuli that differed in voice-onset-time (VOT), a probabilistic cue to the voicing contrast in English stop consonants. In each block, two distributions were presented, one specifying /g/ and one specifying /k/. Across the two blocks, variance of the input distributions was manipulated to be either narrow or wide, reflecting distributions that were relatively more to relatively less consistent, respectively, in terms of how VOT cued the voicing contrast. As predicted by ideal observer computational frameworks, the participants in the aggregate showed steeper identification slopes for consistent compared to inconsistent input distributions. However, the magnitude of learning showed wide individual variability, which was predicted by receptive language ability as measured using standardized assessments. Individuals with poorer receptive language scores showed diminished distributional learning due to a failure to capitalize on consistent input distributions; instead, their perceptual decisions showed instability even the face of acoustic-phonetic certainty.
Bidirectional decay of auditory memory traces for pitch in speech sounds
Authors: Fu Zhanao , Monahan Philip J.
Published: April 2019

Previous studies have shown human listeners have greater detection sensitivity to pitch increment than decrement in successive sounds. Assuming deviance detection is based on the comparison between the memory trace of a recent stimulus and the neural representation of a new stimulus, one hypothesis is that this differential sensitivity between increment and decrement is caused by the downward decay of pitch’s memory trace. Under the same assumption, the present study found bidirectional—as opposed to the predicted unidirectional—decay of memory traces for pitch in speech sounds by measuring listeners' sensitivity to pitch change over varying time intervals with an AX discrimination task. Three properties in the AX task were randomly sampled from preset ranges: (1) f0 of the A token (163:320 Hz), (2) difference between the f0s of A and X (-30:30Hz), and (3) the inter-stimulus interval (ISI; 0:3 s). We found when the stimuli were in the lower portion of the speaker’s pitch range, listeners were less sensitive to pitch increments at larger ISIs. Meanwhile, when the stimuli were in the higher pitch range, listeners were less sensitive to pitch decrements at larger ISIs. These results suggest memory traces for pitch in speech sounds decay toward a center pitch.
On the articulation between acoustic and semantic uncertainty in speech perception: Investigating the interaction between sources of information in perceptual classification.
Authors: Crouzet Olivier , Gaudrain Etienne
Published: April 2019

Listeners processing speech signals have to deal with two main classes of uncertainty occurring in the vicinity of a given speech segment: both acoustic properties of the contextual environment (Ladefoged and Broadbent, 1957; Sjerps and McQueen, 2013) and lexical hypotheses based on word co-occurence probabilities or semantic relations (e.g., Connine, 1987; Gow and Olson, 2015) may affect the interpretation of a given sound. We investigate this issue by independently manipulating (1) semantic relationships between words using word embeddings estimations and (2) acoustic relations between a contextual part and the final word in the sentence. Based on word pairs that contrast on their vowel target only (e.g., french “balle” versus “belle”, pronounced /bal/ vs. /bEl/ -- eng. “ball” versus “beauty”), 3 types of sentences are generated: (1) a sentence that would semantically “prime” the word /bal/ (“Le joueur a dévié la”, eng. “The player deflected the”), (2) a sentence that would favour the word /bEl/ “Le prince a charmé la”, eng. “The prince charmed the”), and (3) a semantically incongruous sentence in both cases “Le journaliste a découvert la”, eng. “The journalist discovered the.” Listeners are presented with fully ambiguous final words (acoustically located between, e.g., /bal/ and /bEl/) in contexts where semantic influence varies (sentence-types 1/2/3) and is balanced with acoustic manipulations of formant frequencies favouring one word or the other. This will provide cues to modelling how both sources of entropy alter speech perception.
Lexically dependent estimation of acoustic information in speech II: Minimal pair confusability
Authors: Redmon Charles , Jongman Allard
Published: April 2019

We aim to develop a framework for the analysis of phonetic contrast systems that is fundamentally lexical and does not depend on assumptions of inventory homogeneity and independence of distribution in words and higher-order systems. Previously (Redmon and Jongman, 2018, JASA) we reported results of an open-class identification experiment on a 240-word sample of the 26,793-word single-speaker database in Tucker et al. (2018). Here, we present results of the second experiment in the project: a 2AFC task where the choice set is limited to obstruent-contrastive minimal pairs. This task forms the opposite end of a continuum from least restricted utilization of acoustic or higher-order information (Exp. 1), to localized attention to a particular contrast in the lexicon. Just as the first experiment provided estimates of a lower bound on listeners’ sensitivity to different cues in the signal, the results of this experiment provide an upper bound on those estimates. Participants were presented with 480 stimuli balanced between contrastive obstruents in #CV, VCV, and VC# positions. The results were then used to determine network edge weights on a phonological lexicon on the model of Vitevitch (2008), which emphasizes the interaction between acoustic features, neighborhood topology, and higher-order information in the lexicon.
Restaurants part 3: The acoustics of dining spaces
Authors: Siebein Keely , Siebein Gary W. , Paek Hyun , Siebein Gary , Roa Marylin , Miller Jennifer R. , Vetterick Matthew
Published: April 2019

Restaurants are spaces where people gather to eat, talk, share, and spend time. They are also facilities where food is prepared and served to others. Restaurants have garnered much attention over the last several years as having high sound levels with some customers having difficulty in communication among patrons and staff. However, spaces such as cafeterias, dining rooms in country clubs, retirement centers, and hospitals serve similar functions as restaurants and suffer from similar acoustic issues. Acoustic measurements of alpha bar, reverberation time, reflected sound energy, noise reduction, and STI were made in various types of dining spaces that have required acoustic treatment. Data from these types of spaces have been added to the data previously collected at restaurants, to provide general information about the acoustics of dining spaces. The results show that dining spaces can be broken into similar treatment categories, regardless of the specific type of space. The sample of rooms was also analyzed by architectural and interior design style to identify design trends that affect the acoustical metrics in dining spaces.
An innovative approach in data collection for restaurant soundscape study
Authors: To W. M. , Chung Andy
Published: April 2019

Crowdsourcing is one of the common approaches in collecting sonic and human perception information for studying restaurant soundscape. However, it has not been easy to find a good reason to motivate people so as to obtain their support continuously in data collection. An innovative approach has been developed and tried in various locations in Asia. This paper presents the initial findings.
A restaurant noise study of continuous and transient noise phenomena
Authors: Bixler Tiffany A. , Korman Murray S.
Published: April 2019

Two restaurants that the author (Bixler) is familiar with are compared in this noise study. Restaurant 1 is a moderately busy (with varying crowds) sports bar that is considered “Americana.” Restaurant 2 is a very busy (always crowded) Texas themed sports bar. Measurements use a RadioShack model 3300099 Digital Sound Level Meter and a SoundMeter X (Version 10.2.2) (application by faberacoustical.com that can be downloaded free from the App Store onto an i-Phone). A professional analysis “Pro tool set” is available and includes a level meter, dosimeter, octave analyzer, and a recorder. These restaurants have interesting areas for studying both continuous and transient noise phenomena. Noise measurement locations include: the dishwasher’s sink (sounds of dishes being washed), the surrounding grill area (sounds of cooking food and moving pans), the bar, the main dining area, and the high-top tables near the bar (to measure the rise and fall of sound levels as conversations ensue). Noise measurements include the prep area, the back sink, behind the bar, host stand, foyer, and main seating areas. Transient noise and sound levels averaged (between 15 s and 1 min) will be presented for different times for slow periods, mediums crowds, and full capacity seating.