Cognitive, affective, and experience correlates of speech quality perception in complex listening conditions

Jan-Niklas Antons, Khalil ur Rehman Laghari, Sebastian Arndt, Robert Schleicher, Sebastian Moller, Douglas O'Shaughnessy, Tiago H. Falk
2013 2013 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing  
Subjective speech quality assessment depends on listener "quality" opinions after hearing a particular test speech stimulus. Subjective scores are given based on a perception and quality judgment process that is unique to a particular listener. These processes are postulated to be dependent on the listener's internal reference of what good and bad quality sounds like, as well as their mental and emotional states. To overcome this variability, subjective listening tests often average scores over
more » ... several listeners. In this paper, we use electroencephalography (EEG) and self-assessment tools to investigate the neural and affective correlates of speech quality perception of reverberant speech, with the goal of obtaining new insights into human speech quality perception in complex listening environments. We show that EEG event related potentials (ERP) are a useful tool to monitor the conscious stages of neural-processing during a speech quality assessment task. Significant correlations were obtained between the so-called P300 ERP component and the reverberation time of the room, as well as between the P300 peak amplitude and emotional self-assessment ratings. These insights could lead to more effective ways of characterizing room acoustics for improved speech quality and intelligibility.
doi:10.1109/icassp.2013.6638343 dblp:conf/icassp/AntonsLASMOF13 fatcat:f5j5hghcpfdlfosr37mmh4un3m