Effects of face masks and speaking style on audio-visual speech perception and memory

Though necessary, protective mask wearing in response to the Covid-19 pandemic presents communication challenges. Speech produced through these masks is quieter, muffled, and lacks important visual cues for listeners. The present study examines how such loss of visual information and signal degradation affects intelligibility and auditory memory of non-native speech. Additionally, we examined whether clear speaking style can alleviate some perceptual difficulty for masked speech. One non-native English speaker recorded short, educationally relevant video clips in three conditions: casual speech without a mask, and casual and clear speech with a mask. In an online study, native English listeners were presented with 15 video clips in each of the three mask / style conditions and transcribed what they heard. Following each condition, listeners answered questions about the content of the clips. Word recognition and memory accuracy will be analyzed. Detailed acoustic analyses will be conducted to assess how face masks and speaking style affect speech production. The results will allow us to quantify speech communication challenges arising from the widespread use of masks. The findings will have implications for communication in classrooms and hospitals where listeners have to understand teachers and healthcare providers, often time non-native speakers, through their protective barriers.