Clear speech is one strategy used to promote successful communication strategy with people who have hearing loss. It occurs naturally and is more intelligible than speech used in conversational settings. However, the aspect of clear speech that makes it more intelligible than conversational speech is unknown. The aim of this study is to investigate the importance of clear speech formant contours. By hybridizing a conversational speech carrier sentence with a clear speech formant contour at a vowel-nasal transition in a target word, it will be determined whether clear speech formant contours impact the way normally hearing listeners understand an otherwise conversational speech sentence.
A total of 30 normally hearing subjects between the ages of 18 and 32 participated in this study. Participants listened to 30 clear, conversational, and manipulated sentences presented in Sine Wave Speech and were asked to identify the last word in the sentences out of four multiple choice answers. Participants responses were scored for number correct out of 10 for each of the 3 conditions. The results indicated no difference in identification between the conditions. Formant contour as an isolated cue as presented in this study does not appear to differentiate clear and conversational speech
