Auditory object formation from background noise improves speech perception

Auditory object formation allows listeners to isolate a speech stream from a complex acoustic environment. While most studies focus on foregrounded speech, here we focus on whether listeners can form auditory objects from background noise to aid in speech perception. We use an open-set word recognition task with fluctuating speech-shaped-noise maskers, created by randomly interrupting the noise in each 125 ms window with a long (100 ms) or short (25 ms) silence. On each trial, three maskers were played, with the word occurring during the third. We previously showed that participants perform significantly better when the patterns repeat, compared to when the first two maskers differed from the third. Only the ordering of long or short within preceding patterns differs. To examine whether this advantage is due to auditory object formation, we leverage previous studies showing that inserted silences interfere with object formation. We insert 433 ms silences between patterns and observe defeat of the advantage we previously observed. We therefore attribute the advantage in the repeated masker condition to formation of an auditory object from background noise. Moving forward, we will manipulate other parameters affecting object formation and observe their affect on speech perception in noise.