Adaptive speech modifications and its effect on communication effectiveness in complex acoustic environments

Previous studies of communication in noisy environment have shown that interlocutors, when residing in the same acoustic environment, continuously adapt their speech patterns in order to overcome communication difficulties (Cooke et al., 2014; Lindblom, 1990). However, little is known about the impact on communication when individuals are in disparate acoustic environments and if/how these individuals would adapt their speech to support effective communication. In this study, eight pairs of interlocutors were required to completed the “spot-the-difference” Diapix task (Van Engel et al., 2010) while being exposed to one of 2 acoustic environments presented at 85 dB SPL over headphones: 1) sparse (2-talker) babble; or 2) dense (8-talker) babble. In some conditions, both individuals were in similar acoustic environments while in others they were in different acoustic environments. A control condition, where both interlocutors communicated in quiet environments was also included. Preliminary results showed that the time for task completion increased when listeners communicated in a dense rather than sparse babble, thus indicating decreased communication efficiency. Acoustic characteristics of the speech produced in these adverse environments suggests that talkers modulate their speech for their own listening environment and not necessarily to meet the needs of their communication partners.