Speech Intelligibility Assessment: Predicting “Noncompliant” Listener Behavior

Author

Briggs Kroff, Utah State University

Date of Award

5-2023

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Departmental Honors

Department

Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education

Abstract

Purpose: When researching speech intelligibility among people with dysarthria, convenience sampling has typically been used to recruit listeners. A new online crowdsourcing method, Mechanical Turk (MTurk), results in ecologically valid results, but outlier results are often removed from the analysis and considered "noncompliant". This study aims to examine whether there is a relationship between age, gender, speech/language/hearing impairment, and whether someone is "noncompliant".

Methods: 16 speakers, both with and without dysarthria, were recorded while they read prewritten sentences. Research participants found through MTurk then listened to the sentences and transcribed them. They also were asked questions including their age, gender, and if they have a speech/language/hearing impairment.

Results: There was no correlation found between either age or gender and if the participant was "noncompliant". However, there was a relationship that suggests participants with communication disorders were more likely to be "noncompliant".

Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that people with communication disorders are more likely to be removed from studies involving people with dysarthria. This could affect the ecological validity of the results since many people with dysarthria often interact with people with communication disorders in their daily lives.

Recommended Citation

Kroff, Briggs, "Speech Intelligibility Assessment: Predicting “Noncompliant” Listener Behavior" (2023). Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects. 961.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/honors/961