Speech intelligibility with various head-related transfer functions: A computational modeling approach

Speech intelligibility is known to be affected by the relative spatial position between target and interferers. The benefit of a spatial separation is, along with other factors, related to the head-related transfer function (HRTF). The HRTF is individually different and thus, the cues that improve speech intelligibility might also be different. In the current study an auditory model was employed to predict speech intelligibility with a variety of HRTFs. The predicted speech intelligibility was found to vary across HRTFs. Thus, individual listeners might have different access to cues that are important for speech intelligibility.