Computer-Based Voice Familiarization, Delivered Remotely Using an Online Platform, Improves Speech Intelligibility for Older and Younger Adults

Abstract

Understanding speech in noisy environments is often challenging, but is easier if we are listening to someone familiar—for example, naturally familiar people (e.g., friends, partners) or voices that have been familiarized artificially in the lab. Thus, familiarizing people with voices they regularly encounter (e.g., new friends and colleagues) could improve speech intelligibility in everyday life, which might be particularly useful for people who struggle to comprehend speech in noisy environments, such as older adults. Yet, we do not currently understand whether computer-based voice familiarization is effective when delivered remotely, outside of a lab setting, and whether it is effective for older adults. Here, in an online computer-based study, we examined whether learned voices are more intelligible than unfamiliar voices in 20 older (55–73 years) and 20 younger (18–34 years) adults. Both groups benefited from training, and the magnitude of the intelligibility benefit (approximately 30% improvement in sentence report, or 9 dB release from masking) was similar between groups. These findings demonstrate that older adults can learn new voices as effectively as younger adults for improving speech intelligibility, even given a relatively short (<1 hr) duration of familiarization that is delivered in the comfort of their own homes.