Speaker
Description
Speech intelligibility decreases in noisy environments, especially for individuals with hearing impairment. Spatial separation between speech and competing sounds improves understanding through spatial release from masking (SRM). This can be measured using loudspeakers or headphones, in the latter case through convolution with Head-Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs). In several use-cases, non-individual HRTFs are employed, despite being known to increase front-back confusion in localisation tests. However, recent studies highlighted that even if participants are not able to “consciously” determine whether the source appears on the front or on the back, the analysis of neurophysiological data allows to detect a difference in brain responses.The present study aims to explore spatial release from masking in the median plane using the Coordinate Response Measure (CRM) corpus in a speech-on-speech task. Participants experience free-field loudspeaker rendering and binaural playback (non-individual HRTFs) rendered via acoustically transparent DIY 3D-printable circumaural headphones. Performance is measured via identification accuracy and front-back discrimination of target and maskers.The free-field presentation is expected to outperform non-individual HRTFs, with the latter performing worse in front-back discrimination due spectral cue mismatches. Consequently reduced SRM benefits are expected.Though, we anticipate that being conscious of the target location will not impact content accuracy. Understanding SRM and target location awareness in different virtual and real world settings can enhance auditory training and can help uncovering generalisation effect from task (front-back discrimination) to task (speech discrimination) in complex environments.