Examination of the effects of listening practice on synthesized speech comprehension

Abstract

This study compared the ability of two groups of young adults to comprehend DECTalk™ synthesized speech using a sentence verification task. The experimental group received 8 days of practice listening to synthesized speech, whereas the control group did not. The experimental subjects' response latencies shortened significantly from the pretest to the post-test to synthesized false sentences. However, although their response latencies also shortened to synthesized true sentences, this difference approached, but did not reach, statistical significance. The control subjects' response latencies did not shorten significantly to either synthesized true or false sentences. Response latencies of both groups were significantly slower to DECTalk than to natural sentences during both the pre- and post-tests. Implications that these findings may have for the successful use of even highly intelligible synthesized speech are discussed.

• comprehension
• DECTalk™
• response latency
• synthesized speech