The band importance function (BIF) quantifies the contribution of each frequency band to the intelligibility of speech and is a key element of the speech intelligibility index. The BIF depends on the type of speech material and speaker characteristics. Several BIFs exist, but they do not cover all test materials used in audiology. This study aimed to determine the BIF for the Dutch digits-in-noise (DIN) test, a widely used speech-in-noise measure. Twenty young adults with normal hearing completed a speech recognition task using Dutch DIN triplets presented at multiple signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) and filtered according to one-third octave bands. The BIF was estimated using the computational method of Kates (2013), applying both digit and triplet scoring approaches. In addition, two automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems, Whisper and FADE, were used to generate comparative BIF estimates. Extended high frequencies (EHFs) were included to assess their contribution to intelligibility. The results showed that the BIF of the Dutch DIN test substantially deviates from other BIFs, particularly in the contribution of high frequencies. Approximately 9% of speech information was attributed to the EHFs. Validation showed improved prediction of DIN test speech recognition thresholds using the newly derived BIF compared to the SPIN BIF. Scoring method influenced band importance slightly, whereas ASR-based estimates did not match human-derived BIFs.
Nick van Huis, N. Versfeld, C. Smits· Hearing Research· 0 citations
This study investigated the effects of noise and reverberation on recognition of Dutch digits-in-noise (DIN) test triplets. The findings demonstrate that the STIDIN, an adaptation to the standard speech transmission index (STI), provides a reliable, low‑error predictor of DIN test performance in conditions with noise and/or reverberation when only a single speech recognition threshold (SRT) measurement in noise is completed. To achieve this, twenty-four normal-hearing (NH) adults completed adaptive SRT measurements in noise-only, reverberation-only and combined noise and reverberation conditions using unprocessed (UP), low-pass filtered (LPF) and cochlear implant vocoded (CIvoc) speech materials. Standard STI values differed across conditions and overestimated the detrimental effect of reverberation on recognition. The STIDIN, derived from the magnitude cross power spectrum (mCPS) of reverberated DIN test triplets and unprocessed triplets, was applicable for T60 reverberation times up to 12 s. STIDIN values remained constant across conditions, showing no significant main effect of condition for any of the unprocessed and processed speech materials. The results show that when an SRTn measurement in noise-only is obtained using DIN test triplets (i.e., the clinical standard), the STIDIN can be used to predict the SRT in other listening conditions with noise and reverberation. The root‑mean‑square error between measured and predicted SRTs was 0.92 dB, and 95 % of predictions deviated <1.7 dB from the measured values in conditions with noise and/or reverberation.
Finn S. Holtrop, Daphne L. Geijsen, F. Vanpoucke et al.· Hearing Research· 0 citations
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