Speaker Intelligibility of Black and White School Children for Black and White Adult Listeners Under Varying Listening Conditions

Abstract

Word discrimination scores were obtained from 25 black and 25 white college students. Monosyllabic words were spoken by 24 black and 24 white children from a low socio-economic urban environment. Listening was conducted in quiet, at a 10 dB signal-to-noise ratio, and at a 0 dB signal-to-noise ratio. Results showed black children and white children were equally intelligible to the black adult-listeners, while the white adult-listeners found white children significantly more intelligible than black children. Word discrimination scores for black adults listening to black children were comparable to those of white adults listening to the white children. The quiet listening condition yielded the best scores, 10 dB S/N next best, and 0 dB the poorest. Noise deteriorated word discrimination scores of the black and white listeners differently.