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Performance-Based Measurement of Speech Quality with an Audio Proof-Reading Task

Speech communication systems need to be evaluated across a wide range of signal qualities. However, when signal quality is high, evaluations focus on listener acceptance rather than on task performance because conventional intelligibility tests reach ceiling values. This research considers whether measures of cognitive load could be used to measure the effect of signal quality on communication performance even when intelligibility is high. It is shown that differences in signal quality can affect the ability of listeners to detect transcription errors in an audio proof-reading task. The research also shows that a noise reduction system, which elsewhere has been said to improve listener acceptance, gives no improvement in terms of cognitive load on this task.

Authors: Huckvale, Mark; Hilkhuysen, Gaston
Affiliation: University College London, London, UK
JAES Volume 60 Issue 6 pp. 444-451; June 2012 Import into BibTeX

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