Speech intelligibility in noise: Effects of fluency and hearing protector type

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Abstract
This research investigated the effect of ear protectors on the intelligibility of speech in noise. Listeners [human] with normal hearing, high-frequency and flat loss were tested. Half the subjects in each group were fluent in English and half poorly conversant. Taped lists of 25 words were presented free field under conditions defined by the speech-to-noise ratio, spectrum of noise background and presence of ear protection. Intelligibility decreased with speech-to-noise ratio and was poorer in crowd noise than in white noise. The protector had no effect for the normal listener, but caused a substantial decrement in those with impairment. In all groups nonfluency contributed an additional loss of 10-20%. Significant differences in performance were noted for different muff and plug types.

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