The effects of reverberant self- and overlap-masking on speech recognition in cochlear implant listeners.

Many cochlear implant (CI) listeners experience decreased speech recognition in reverberant environments [Kokkinakis et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 129(5), 3221-3232 (2011)], which may be caused by a combination of self- and overlap-masking [Bolt and MacDonald, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 21(6), 577-580 (1949)]. Determining the extent to which these effects decrease speech recognition for CI listeners may influence reverberation mitigation algorithms. This study compared speech recognition with ideal self-masking mitigation, with ideal overlap-masking mitigation, and with no mitigation. Under these conditions, mitigating either self- or overlap-masking resulted in significant improvements in speech recognition for both normal hearing subjects utilizing an acoustic model and for CI listeners using their own devices.

Duke Scholars

Author Leslie M. Collins Electrical and Computer Engineering