Effects of Talker Age, Lombard Speech, and Face Mask with a Physical Barrier on Speech Intelligibility in Noise

Abstract

Lombard speech is typically more intelligible than quiet speech in noise. This study examined effects of talker age and a physical barrier combining a face mask and acrylic barrier. Four younger and four older adults produced sentences in quiet and noise. Sixteen younger listeners identified target words from level-normalized speech. Lombard speech improved intelligibility, whereas the physical barrier reduced it; talker age had no significant effect. Planned contrasts showed that Lombard speech with the barrier was less intelligible than both Lombard and quiet speech without the barrier, indicating that Lombard adaptation did not fully compensate for barrier-related loss.