Archives of Acoustics, 37, 2, pp. 199–203, 2012

Effects of Speech Intensity on the Callsign Acquisition Test (CAT) and Modified Rhyme Test (MRT) Presented in Noise

Misty BLUE-TERRY
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University; The Cooperative Extension Program, Coltrane Hall

Maranda McBRIDE
Department of Management, North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University

Tomasz LETOWSKI
U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Human Research & Engineering Directorate

This study sought to evaluate the effect of speech intensity on performance of the Callsign Acquisition
Test (CAT) and Modified Rhyme Test (MRT) presented in noise. Fourteen normally hearing listeners
performed both tests in 65 dB A white background noise. Speech intensity varied while background noise
remained constant to form speech-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of −18, −15, −12, −9, and −6 dB. Results
showed that CAT recognition scores were significantly higher than MRT scores at the same SNRs; how-
ever, the scores from both tests were highly correlated and their relationship for the SNRs tested can be
expressed by a simple linear function. The concept of CAT can be easily ported to other languages for
testing speech communication under adverse listening conditions.
Keywords: speech intelligibility; speech intensity; speech-to-noise ratio
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