Study of speech intelligibility in anechoic and reverberant environments using Slovak language

Binaural aspects play a significant role in speech intelligibility, with listeners demonstrating better performance in scenarios where the signal and noise sources are spatially separated, leveraging interaural time and level differences for improved sound segregation and localization. Thus, the question is: How do binaural aspects influence speech intelligibility in different spatial configurations of signal and noise? In this paper, speech intelligibility is examined in an anechoic and reverberant environment, specifically focusing on three configurations of signal and noise: (1) signal and noise both coming from the front at a distance of 1-meter, (2) signal from the front and noise from the right side (90 degrees) at a 1-meter distance, and (3) signal from the front and noise from the back (180 degrees) at a 1-meter distance. The study employs two different noises-speech-weighted noise and multi-talker noise-during listening tests conducted in the Slovak language. Furthermore, the study compares the outcomes with a similar experiment conducted a few years ago in the Dutch language, providing valuable insights into language-specific variations in speech perception under different acoustic environments.