Christian E. Stilp|Keith R. Kluender
Cochlea-scaled entropy, not consonants, vowels, or time, best predicts speech intelligibility
University of Wisconsin–Madison|Duke Medical Center|University of Wisconsin–Madison|Duke Medical Center
speech sounds traditionally divided consonants vowels vowels consonants replaced noise listeners accurate understanding sentences consonants replaced vowels remain data vowels suggested important understanding sentences however conclusions mitigated fact replaced consonant segments roughly onethird shorter vowels report two experiments demonstrate listener performance better predicted simple psychoacoustic measures cochleascaled spectral change across time first listeners identified sentences portions consonants c vowels v cv transitions vc transitions replaced noise relative intelligibility well accounted basis cs vs transitions second experiment distinctions cs vs abandoned instead portions sentences replaced basis cochleascaled spectral entropy cse sentence segments relatively high medium low entropy replaced noise intelligibility decreased linearly amount replaced cse increased duration signal replaced proportion consonantsvowels replaced fail account listener data cse corresponds closely linguistic construct sonority vowellikeness useful describing phonological systematicity especially syllable composition results challenge traditional distinctions consonants vowels speech intelligibility better predicted nonlinguistic sensory measures uncertainty potential information orthodox physical acoustic measures linguistic constructs