Talker head-orientation and extended high-frequency benefits for speech recognition as a function of masker head angle

Authors

Delaram, V., Ananthanarayana, R. M., Trine, A., Miller, M. K., Stecker, G. C., Buss, E., Monson, B. B.

Abstract

Several types of cues contribute to speech recognition in multi-talker environments. In this study, we investigated how talker head-orientation related (THOR) cues and extended high-frequency (EHF; >8kHz) cues affect speech-in-speech recognition for both female and male speech. We examined the THOR benefit associated with a non-facing masker talker head orientation (relative to a facing orientation) as a function of masker talker facing angle. The target talker always faced the listener, whereas co-located maskers were tested with eight different masker head angles, ranging from 0 degrees (facing the listener) to facing 180 degrees away. Two filtering conditions were tested: full-band and low-pass filtered at 8 kHz. A THOR benefit was observed at masker head angles greater than 45 degrees, increasing from 2 dB to 8 dB between angles of 67.5 degrees and 180 degrees. This benefit was reduced for low-pass filtered speech. Access to EHF cues improved performance, but only for masker head angles >22.5 degrees. There was no significant relationship between 16-kHz pure-tone thresholds and performance for young, normal-hearing listeners with good EHF hearing. These findings indicate that listeners benefit from non-facing masker talker head orientations >45 degrees when the target talker is facing the listener, with greater benefit for larger head angles.

Preprint server: bioRxiv
The authors list and abstract were imported from bioRxiv on 19 Aug 2026.

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