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Speech Communication in Complex Auditory Scenes and Effects on Voice Behaviour and Health, Listening Comfort, Well-Being, and Learning

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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Health Behavior, Chronic Disease and Health Promotion".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2022) | Viewed by 19223

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Arianna Astolfi

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Guest Editor

Department of Energy, Polytechnic University of Turin, 10129 Turin, Italy
Interests: classroom acoustics; speech intelligibility; voice monitoring; concert-hall acoustics; acoustic materials; soundscape and sound insulation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Giuseppina Emma Puglisi

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Guest Editor

Politecnico di Torino, Department of Energy, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129, Torino, Italy
Interests: classroom acoustics; speech intelligibility; cognitive abilities; speech production; voice monitoring; soundscape

Prof. Dr. Janina Fels

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Guest Editor

Institute and Chair for Hearing Technology and Acoustics, RWTH Aachen University, Kopernikusstraße 5, 52074 Aachen, Germany
Interests: auditory cognition in interactive virtual environments; classroom acoustics (interaction between room acoustics–hearing–speaking); binaural technology/spatial audio; technical systems for ENT and audiology; sound design and sound quality; noise control and noise assessment (binaural perception and auditory selective attention); psychoacoustics: binaural perception in complex environments

Ms. Karin Loh

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Guest Editor

Institute and Chair for Hearing Technology and Acoustics, RWTH Aachen University, Kopernikusstraße 5, 52074 Aachen, Germany
Interests: classroom acoustics; children’s auditory cognition; noise effects; activity-based acoustic settings

Dr. Anna Warzybok

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Guest Editor

Medical Physics and Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, D-26111 Oldenburg, Germany
Interests: speech perception in acoustically complex environments; audio-visual scenes; classroom acoustics; hearing impairment; fitting and assessment of hearing devices; speech recognition modelling

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are immersed in multicultural and densely occupied settings that make everyday life environments more and more challenging from the acoustic point of view. Effective speech communication is a fundamental need to face everyday relationships during an entire lifespan. Especially, it is crucial to enhance learning, the sense of belonging to a group, the personal safety and satisfaction, the ability of understanding speech for people with hearing loss (e.g., with hearing aids or cochlear implants)and for people who speak a different language. Speech communication accounts for both a talker’s and a listener’s premises. On the one side, the talker is asked to preserve her/his voice, and on the other side, the listener must be enabled to understand a message clearly.

Unfavorable room acoustics, such as high reverberation as well as environmental and anthropically-generated noise are factors that affect speech communication and in turn health, listening comfort, learning, well-being and working productivity. Complex auditory scenes for speech communication can be referred among others to teaching and learning environments, offices, restaurants, social or recreation spaces, outdoor spaces, enclosed public transport premises, shopping malls.

Professionals, such as teachers, singers, call-centre operators, use their voice as a primary working tool and may suffer from the onset of vocal pathologies at several levels. Voice disorders and vocal load can increase due to recurrent situations, such as the acoustic characteristics of the environments in which voice is used.

Vulnerable listeners are particularly interested in enhanced auditory conditions, such as young pupils that are at the first stages of education, knowledge workers in big open-plan offices, the elderly who may suffer from hearing and cognitive deficits, and hearing-impaired listeners equipped with implants or hearing aids.

The aim of the present Special Issue is to bring together up-to-date research on the speaking- and auditory-related aspects of speech communication in everyday life environments, such as:

Experimental campaigns to investigate complex auditory scenes for speech communication;
Application of virtual reality to investigate complex auditory scenes;
Optimization of auditory scenes;
Flexible solutions in everyday life environments to improve speech communication;
Control of speech and noise generated by occupants;
Assessment of the perceived acoustic comfort and well-being via occupant survey and relations with acoustic measurement data;
Occupants’ health in dependence on acoustic conditions;
Occupants’ cognitive abilities, performance and productivity related to their acoustic environment;
Impact of hearing impairment and benefit from hearing devices;
Influence of other environmental aspects on speech communication.

Prof. Dr. Arianna Astolfi
Dr. Giuseppina Emma Puglisi
Prof. Dr. Janina Fels
Ms. Karin Loh
Dr. Anna Warzybok
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Speech communication
Complex auditory scenes
Everyday life environments
Vocal behaviour and health
Vocal comfort
Noise control
Acoustic comfort
Learning
Well-being
Occupants’ behaviour and cognition

Published Papers (9 papers)

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Research

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13 pages, 1405 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Objective Assessment of Binaural Benefit from Acoustical Treatment in Real Primary School Classrooms

by Greta Minelli, Giuseppina Emma Puglisi, Arianna Astolfi, Christopher Hauth and Anna Warzybok

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(10), 5848; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20105848 - 17 May 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 971

Abstract

Providing students with an adequate acoustic environment is crucial for ensuring speech intelligibility in primary school classrooms. Two main approaches to control acoustics in educational facilities consist of reducing background noise and late reverberation. Prediction models for speech intelligibility have been developed and implemented to evaluate the effects of these approaches. In this study, two versions of the Binaural Speech Intelligibility Model (BSIM) were used to predict speech intelligibility in realistic spatial configurations of speakers and listeners, considering binaural aspects. Both versions shared the same binaural processing and speech intelligibility backend processes but differed in the pre-processing of the speech signal. An Italian primary school classroom was characterized in terms of acoustics before (reverberation, T20 = 1.6 ± 0.1 s) and after (T20 = 0.6 ± 0.1 s) an acoustical treatment to compare BSIM predictions to well-established room acoustic measures. With shorter reverberation time, speech clarity and definition improved, as well as speech recognition thresholds (SRTs) (by up to ~6 dB), particularly when the noise source was close to the receiver and an energetic masker was present. Conversely, longer reverberation times resulted (i) in poorer SRTs (by ~11 dB on average) and (ii) in an almost non-existent spatial release from masking at an angle (SRM). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Speech Communication in Complex Auditory Scenes and Effects on Voice Behaviour and Health, Listening Comfort, Well-Being, and Learning)

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14 pages, 893 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Be Quiet! Effects of Competing Speakers and Individual Characteristics on Listening Comprehension for Primary School Students

by Chiara Visentin, Matteo Pellegatti, Maria Garraffa, Alberto Di Domenico and Nicola Prodi

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(6), 4822; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20064822 - 09 Mar 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1361

Abstract

Students learn in noisy classrooms, where the main sources of noise are their own voices. In this sound environment, students are not equally at risk from background noise interference during lessons, due to the moderation effect of the individual characteristics on the listening conditions. This study investigates the effect of the number of competing speakers on listening comprehension and whether this is modulated by selective attention skills, working memory, and noise sensitivity. Seventy-one primary school students aged 10 to 13 years completed a sentence comprehension task in three listening conditions: quiet, two competing speakers, and four competing speakers. Outcome measures were accuracy, listening effort (response times and self-reported), motivation, and confidence in completing the task. Individual characteristics were assessed in quiet. Results showed that the number of competing speakers has no direct effects on the task, whilst the individual characteristics were found to moderate the effect of the listening conditions. Selective attention moderated the effects on accuracy and response times, working memory on motivation, and noise sensitivity on both perceived effort and confidence. Students with low cognitive abilities and high noise sensitivity were found to be particularly at risk in the condition with two competing speakers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Speech Communication in Complex Auditory Scenes and Effects on Voice Behaviour and Health, Listening Comfort, Well-Being, and Learning)

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15 pages, 613 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Towards a Characterization of Background Music Audibility in Broadcasted TV

by Roser Batlle-Roca, Perfecto Herrera-Boyer, Blai Meléndez-Catalán, Emilio Molina and Xavier Serra

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(1), 123; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20010123 - 22 Dec 2022

Viewed by 1728

Abstract

In audiovisual contexts, different conventions determine the level at which background music is mixed into the final program, and sometimes, the mix renders the music to be practically or totally inaudible. From a perceptual point of view, the audibility of music is subject to auditory masking by other aural stimuli such as voice or additional sounds (e.g., applause, laughter, horns), and is also influenced by the visual content that accompanies the soundtrack, and by attentional and motivational factors. This situation is relevant to the music industry because, according to some copyright regulations, the non-audible background music must not generate any distribution rights, and the marginally audible background music must generate half of the standard value of audible music. In this study, we conduct two psychoacoustic experiments to identify several factors that influence background music perception, and their contribution to its variable audibility. Our experiments are based on auditory detection and chronometric tasks involving keyboard interactions with original TV content. From the collected data, we estimated a sound-to-music ratio range to define the audibility threshold limits of the barely audible class. In addition, results show that perception is affected by loudness level, listening condition, music sensitivity, and type of television content. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Speech Communication in Complex Auditory Scenes and Effects on Voice Behaviour and Health, Listening Comfort, Well-Being, and Learning)

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20 pages, 2038 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Examining the Auditory Selective Attention Switch in a Child-Suited Virtual Reality Classroom Environment

by Carolin Breuer, Karin Loh, Larissa Leist, Stephan Fremerey, Alexander Raake, Maria Klatte and Janina Fels

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(24), 16569; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192416569 - 09 Dec 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1985

Abstract

The ability to focus ones attention in different acoustical environments has been thoroughly investigated in the past. However, recent technological advancements have made it possible to perform laboratory experiments in a more realistic manner. In order to investigate close-to-real-life scenarios, a classroom was modeled in virtual reality (VR) and an established paradigm to investigate the auditory selective attention (ASA) switch was translated from an audio-only version into an audiovisual VR setting. The new paradigm was validated with adult participants in a listening experiment, and the results were compared to the previous version. Apart from expected effects such as switching costs and auditory congruency effects, which reflect the robustness of the overall paradigm, a difference in error rates between the audio-only and the VR group was found, suggesting enhanced attention in the new VR setting, which is consistent with recent studies. Overall, the results suggest that the presented VR paradigm can be used and further developed to investigate the voluntary auditory selective attention switch in a close-to-real-life classroom scenario. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Speech Communication in Complex Auditory Scenes and Effects on Voice Behaviour and Health, Listening Comfort, Well-Being, and Learning)

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17 pages, 1322 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Differential Effects of Task-Irrelevant Monaural and Binaural Classroom Scenarios on Children’s and Adults’ Speech Perception, Listening Comprehension, and Visual–Verbal Short-Term Memory

by Larissa Leist, Carolin Breuer, Manuj Yadav, Stephan Fremerey, Janina Fels, Alexander Raake, Thomas Lachmann, Sabine J. Schlittmeier and Maria Klatte

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(23), 15998; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315998 - 30 Nov 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1555

Abstract

Most studies investigating the effects of environmental noise on children’s cognitive performance examine the impact of monaural noise (i.e., same signal to both ears), oversimplifying multiple aspects of binaural hearing (i.e., adequately reproducing interaural differences and spatial information). In the current study, the effects of a realistic classroom-noise scenario presented either monaurally or binaurally on tasks requiring processing of auditory and visually presented information were analyzed in children and adults. In Experiment 1, across age groups, word identification was more impaired by monaural than by binaural classroom noise, whereas listening comprehension (acting out oral instructions) was equally impaired in both noise conditions. In both tasks, children were more affected than adults. Disturbance ratings were unrelated to the actual performance decrements. Experiment 2 revealed detrimental effects of classroom noise on short-term memory (serial recall of words presented pictorially), which did not differ with age or presentation mode (monaural vs. binaural). The present results add to the evidence for detrimental effects of noise on speech perception and cognitive performance, and their interactions with age, using a realistic classroom-noise scenario. Binaural simulations of real-world auditory environments can improve the external validity of studies on the impact of noise on children’s and adults’ learning. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Speech Communication in Complex Auditory Scenes and Effects on Voice Behaviour and Health, Listening Comfort, Well-Being, and Learning)

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17 pages, 4997 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effects of Face Masks on Physiological Parameters and Voice Production during Cycling Activity

by Arianna Astolfi, Giuseppina Emma Puglisi, Louena Shtrepi, Paolo Tronville, Jesús Alejandro Marval Diaz, Alessio Carullo, Alberto Vallan, Alessio Atzori, Ada Ferri and Francesca Dotti

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(11), 6491; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19116491 - 26 May 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1353

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of face masks on physiological and voice parameters, focusing on cyclists that perform incremental sports activity. Three healthy male subjects were monitored in a climatic chamber wearing three types of masks with different acoustic properties, breathing resistance, and air filtration performance. Masks A and B were surgical masks made of hydrophobic fabric and three layers of non-woven fabric of 100% polypropylene, respectively. Mask S was a multilayer cloth mask designed for sports activity. Mask B and Mask S behave similarly and show lower sound attenuation and sound transmission loss and lower breathing resistance than Mask A, although Mask A exhibits slightly higher filtration efficiency. Similar cheek temperatures were observed for Masks A and B, while a significantly higher temperature was measured with Mask S at incremental physical activity. No differences were found between the masks and the no-mask condition for voice monitoring. Overall, Mask B and Mask S are suitable for sports activities without adverse effects on voice production while ensuring good breathing resistance and filtration efficiency. These outcomes support choosing appropriate masks for sports activities, showing the best trade-off between breathing resistance and filtration efficiency, sound attenuation, and sound transmission loss. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Speech Communication in Complex Auditory Scenes and Effects on Voice Behaviour and Health, Listening Comfort, Well-Being, and Learning)

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17 pages, 11946 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Towards Child-Appropriate Virtual Acoustic Environments: A Database of High-Resolution HRTF Measurements and 3D-Scans of Children

by Hark Simon Braren and Janina Fels

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(1), 324; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19010324 - 29 Dec 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3067

Abstract

Head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) play a significant role in modern acoustic experiment designs in the auralization of 3-dimensional virtual acoustic environments. This technique enables us to create close to real-life situations including room-acoustic effects, background noise and multiple sources in a controlled laboratory environment. While adult HRTF databases are widely available to the research community, datasets of children are not. To fill this gap, children aged 5–10 years old were recruited among 1st and 2nd year primary school children in Aachen, Germany. Their HRTFs were measured in the hemi-anechoic chamber with a 5-degree × 5-degree resolution. Special care was taken to reduce artifacts from motion during the measurements by means of fast measurement routines. To complement the HRTF measurements with the anthropometric data needed for individualization methods, a high-resolution 3D-scan of the head and upper torso of each participant was recorded. The HRTF measurement took around 3 min. The children’s head movement during that time was larger compared to adult participants in comparable experiments but was generally kept within 5 degrees of rotary and 1 cm of translatory motion. Adult participants only exhibit this range of motion in longer duration measurements. A comparison of the HRTF measurements to the KEMAR artificial head shows that it is not representative of an average child HRTF. Difference can be seen in both the spectrum and in the interaural time delay (ITD) with differences of 70 μs on average and a maximum difference of 138 μs. For both spectrum and ITD, the KEMAR more closely resembles the 95th percentile of range of children’s data. This warrants a closer look at using child specific HRTFs in the binaural presentation of virtual acoustic environments in the future. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Speech Communication in Complex Auditory Scenes and Effects on Voice Behaviour and Health, Listening Comfort, Well-Being, and Learning)

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18 pages, 3209 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Subjective Experience of Speech Depending on the Acoustic Treatment in an Ordinary Room

by Emma Arvidsson, Erling Nilsson, Delphine Bard-Hagberg and Ola J. I. Karlsson

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(23), 12274; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182312274 - 23 Nov 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1754

Abstract

In environments such as classrooms and offices, complex tasks are performed. A satisfactory acoustic environment is critical for the performance of such tasks. To ensure a good acoustic environment, the right acoustic treatment must be used. The relation between different room acoustic treatments and how they affect speech perception in these types of rooms is not yet fully understood. In this study, speech perception was evaluated for three different configurations using absorbers and diffusers. Twenty-nine participants reported on their subjective experience of speech in respect of different configurations in different positions in a room. They judged sound quality and attributes related to speech perception. In addition, the jury members ranked the different acoustic environments. The subjective experience was related to the different room acoustic treatments and the room acoustic parameters of speech clarity, reverberation time and sound strength. It was found that people, on average, rated treatments with a high degree of absorption as best. This configuration had the highest speech clarity value and lowest values for reverberation time and sound strength. The perceived sound quality could be correlated to speech clarity, while attributes related to speech perception had the strongest association with reverberation time. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Speech Communication in Complex Auditory Scenes and Effects on Voice Behaviour and Health, Listening Comfort, Well-Being, and Learning)

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Review

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20 pages, 2080 KiB

Open AccessReview

The Effects of Noise on Cognitive Performance and Helplessness in Childhood: A Review

by Maud Dohmen, Ella Braat-Eggen, Astrid Kemperman and Maarten Hornikx

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(1), 288; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20010288 - 24 Dec 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3785

Abstract

Environmental noise affects our daily functioning in many ways, and the cognitive, motivational, and emotional effects of noise are intertwined. Our task performance under noisy conditions depends on our ability to cope with the noise and our cognitive resources. The process of (failed) coping may wear us out cognitively, lead to learned helplessness, and, consequently, alter the motivation to persist in a task. The direct effect of irrelevant sounds on cognitive functioning in children is relatively well-established, however, the research on the framework of learned helplessness is limited when it comes to children. Learned helplessness can give more insight into effects of environmental noise on learning and child development and how the effects of short-term and long-term exposure interact. A systematic literature review is performed to assess to what extent the current evidence addresses the (interaction) effects of the sound environment on cognition and learned helplessness as measured by motivation in children and young adults up to the age of 21. The search resulted in 8 included papers that addressed both cognition and learned helplessness in their research. The included papers study children between 8–13 years old and show evidence for a relation between environmental noise, cognition, and helplessness individually, but none study a possible interaction. Based on the individual study designs, it could be hypothesized that cognitive fatigue may play a role in the interaction. Studies that conducted motivation tasks after cognitive tasks found stronger effects than those that conducted tasks in a random order. More research is needed using the same methods in different age groups to further assess the interaction between cognition and learned helplessness in relation to the sound environment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Speech Communication in Complex Auditory Scenes and Effects on Voice Behaviour and Health, Listening Comfort, Well-Being, and Learning)

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