RT Journal Article
T1 Spatial release from masking in the median plane with nonnative speakers using individual and mannequin head related transfer functions
A1 González-Toledo, Daniel
A1 Cuevas-Rodríguez, María
A1 Vicente, Thibault
A1 Picinali, Lorenzo
A1 Molina-Tanco, Luis
A1 Reyes-Lecuona, Arcadio
K1 Comunicación oral
K1 Micrófonos
K1 Reconocimiento automático del lenguaje
K1 Transductores electroacústicos
K1 Procesado de señales
K1 Electrónica - Aparatos e instrumentos
K1 Intercomprensión (Lingüística)
AB Spatial release from masking (SRM) in speech-on-speech tasks has been widely studied in the horizontal plane, where interaural cues play a fundamental role. Several studies have also observed SRM for sources located in the median plane, where (monaural) spectral cues are more important. However, a relatively unexplored research question concerns the impact of head-related transfer function (HRTF) personalisation on SRM, for example, whether using individually-measured HRTFs results in better performance if compared with the use of mannequin HRTFs. This study compares SRM in the median plane in a speech-on-speech virtual task rendered using both individual and mannequin HRTFs. SRM is obtained using English sentences with non-native English speakers. Our participants show lower SRM performances compared to those found by others using native English participants. Furthermore, SRM is significantly larger when the source is spatialised using the individual HRTF, and this effect is more marked for those with lower English proficiency. Further analyses using a spectral distortion metric and the estimation of the better-ear effect, show that the observed SRM can only partially be explained by HRTF-specific factors and that the effect of the familiarity with individual spatial cues is likely to be the most significant element driving these results.
PB AIP
YR 2024
FD 2024
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/37734
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/37734
LA eng
NO González-Toledo D, Cuevas-Rodríguez M, Vicente T, Picinali L, Molina-Tanco L, Reyes-Lecuona A. Spatial release from masking in the median plane with non-native speakers using individual and mannequin head related transfer functions. J Acoust Soc Am. 2024 Jan 1;155(1):284-293. doi: 10.1121/10.0024239.
NO Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga.This study has been supported by SONICOM (www.sonicom.eu), a project funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 101017743, and the Spanish National Project SAVLab, under Grant No. PID2019-107854GB-I00.
DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga
RD 20 ene 2026