The present investigation was concerned with the application of three listener performance tasks; learning rate, recall, and listener confidence ratings as criteria for evaluating speech communication systems. Lists of 24 words, equal in intelligibility and content but differing in acoustic quality were presented auditorily to five groups of listeners. Both learning rate and the listener confidence ratings varied systematically with the type and severity of signal distortion. The results indicated that learning rate and listener confidence ratings are sensitive to signal distortion and may prove useful as criteria for assessing speech communication systems.
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