The extended speech reception threshold model: Predicting speech intelligibility in different types of non-stationary noise in hearing-impaired listeners

Abstract

The speech reception threshold (SRT) model of Plomp [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 63(2), 533-549 (1978)] can be used to describe SRT (dB signal-to-noise ratio) for 50% of sentences correct in stationary noise in normal-hearing (NH) and hearing-impaired (HI) listeners. The extended speech reception threshold model (ESRT) [Rhebergen et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 117, 2181-2192 (2010)] was introduced to describe the SRT in non-stationary noises. With the ESRT model, they showed that the SRT in non-stationary noises is, contra to the SRT in stationary noise, dependent on the non-stationary noise type and noise level. We examine with SRT data from the literature, whether the ESRT model can also be used to predict SRT in individual NH and HI listeners in different types of non-stationary noise based on a single SRT measurement in quiet, stationary, and non-stationary noise. The predicted speech reception thresholds (SRTs) in non-stationary noises in NH and HI listeners correspond well with the observed SRTs independent of the used non-stationary spectral or temporal masking, or noise masking levels. The ESRT model cannot only be used to describe the SRT within a non-stationary noise but can also be used to predict the SRTs in other non-stationary noise types as a function of noise level in NH and HI listeners.