The effect of talker-listener angle on word intelligibility

A series of experiments were conducted in a sound-treated studio to study the effects of talker angle and listener angle on speech intelligibility. Background noise was introduced through two loudspeakers to control the general intelligibility level in the vicinity of the listeners. The noise also served to neutralize the effects of speech reflections in the room. Seventy word-tests were run in three sub-experiments. The talker read a list of fifty C-V-C words for each test. The results indicated that speech intelligibility varies more with listener angle than with talker angle, at least within 45° on either side of the talker. However, the relationship between intelligibility and listening angle may have been influenced by the directionality of the noise source relative to the talker and the listeners.