Perceptual judgements of tracheoesophageal speech: the issue of listener bias

AbstractThis study examined whether listener familiarity influenced perceptual ratings of tracheoesophageal speech (TES) and whether the TES of laryngectomy and pharyngolaryngectomy patient is perceived as different by listeners of varying familiarity with alaryngeal communication. Samples of TES from 30 laryngectomy and 13 pharyngolaryngectomy patients were judged by three groups of listeners across the parameters of intelligibility, pleasantness, acceptability and naturalness. Listener groups comprised 12 speech pathologists, 12 naive listeners and 12 laryngectomees. Naive listeners consistently rated all parameters as more severely impaired than did both the laryngectomy and speech pathologist listener groups. No significant differences were found between the ratings of the laryngectomy and speech pathologist groups for naturalness and pleasantness but the laryngectomy group rated intelligibility and acceptability significantly lower than the speech pathologists. All three groups of listeners were foun...