Does sentence complexity interfere with intelligibility in noise? Evaluation of the Oldenburg Linguistically and Audiologically Controlled Sentence Test (OLACS)

摘要

The Oldenburg Linguistically and Audiologically Controlled Sentence Test (OLACS), which contains sentences with seven different grades of linguistic complexity, is introduced. The evaluation of this new German speech material was performed by presenting each sentence at three different SNRs to 36 normally hearing listeners. Sentence specific discrimination functions were calculated and for each sentence type 40 sentences were selected. Differences of up to 3dB occurred for the different grades of linguistic complexity. Interindividual differences occurred in speech recognition rates of up to 30%. Thus, on the one hand the material seems to be appropriate for examining the influence of sentence complexity on speech recognition both qualitatively as well as quantitatively. On the other hand the OLACS might be used for diagnostic purposes to differentiate e.g. across individual listeners.