Abstract
An experiment was conducted to study the effects of (1) interaural alternation, (2) interruption, and (3) the combination of interaural alternation and interruption upon the intelligibility of monosyllabic words. The interaural alternation of speech signals imposed little adverse effect on their intelligibility. When the same words were subjected to interruption alone, the effect varied with (1) duty-cycle, (2) with the distinctive sampling of speech peculiar to certain rates of interruption, and (3) with the effort and training of the listeners. Alternation of interrupted speech resulted in decrements in intelligibility compatible with the effect seen on uninterrupted signals. As duty-cycle decreased, intelligibility scores decreased because a smaller percentage of the signal was available to the listeners. At the rate of interruption of 2 i.p.s., scores were low. As rate of interruption increased from 2 through 8 i.p.s., intelligibility scores improved. However, those rates of interruption above 8 i.p.s. at which scores decreased, changed to lower rates of interruption as duty-cycle decreased. Between 2 and 8 i.p.s. and at 64 i.p.s. intelligibility remained surprisingly stable on re-test. On the other hand, scores obtained between 8 and 40 i.p.s. could be varied, usually in the direction of higher scores, when practice was provided. If the speech sample was no less than 4 msec. in duration and the listener was insured of at least five samples of the word, 50 per cent intelligibility could be maintained.
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