Effect of masks on speech intelligibility in auralized classrooms

Pasquale Bottalico; Silvia Murgia; Giuseppina Emma Puglisi; Arianna Astolfi; Karen Iler Kirk

doi:10.1121/10.0002450

Effect of masks on speech intelligibility in auralized classrooms

Pasquale Bottalico, Silvia Murgia, Giuseppina Emma Puglisi, Arianna Astolfi, Karen Iler Kirk

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

This study explored the effects of wearing face masks on classroom communication. The effects of three different types of face masks (fabric, surgical, and N95 masks) on speech intelligibility (SI) presented to college students in auralized classrooms were evaluated. To simulate realistic classroom conditions, speech stimuli were presented in the presence of speech-shaped noise with a signal-to-noise ratio of +3 dB under two different reverberation times (0.4 s and 3.1 s). The use of fabric masks yielded a significantly greater reduction in SI compared to the other masks. Therefore, surgical masks or N95 masks are recommended in teaching environments.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	2878-2884
Number of pages	7
Journal	Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
Volume	148
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0002450
State	Published - Nov 1 2020

Keywords

COVID-19
severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
Acoustics and Ultrasonics

Online availability

10.1121/10.0002450

Library availability

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title = "Effect of masks on speech intelligibility in auralized classrooms",

abstract = "This study explored the effects of wearing face masks on classroom communication. The effects of three different types of face masks (fabric, surgical, and N95 masks) on speech intelligibility (SI) presented to college students in auralized classrooms were evaluated. To simulate realistic classroom conditions, speech stimuli were presented in the presence of speech-shaped noise with a signal-to-noise ratio of +3 dB under two different reverberation times (0.4 s and 3.1 s). The use of fabric masks yielded a significantly greater reduction in SI compared to the other masks. Therefore, surgical masks or N95 masks are recommended in teaching environments.",

keywords = "COVID-19, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)",

author = "Pasquale Bottalico and Silvia Murgia and Puglisi, {Giuseppina Emma} and Arianna Astolfi and Kirk, {Karen Iler}",

note = "Funding Information: This work was funded by the Campus Research Board Awards (Grant No. RB20006) from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the 2019 New Century Scholars Research Grant from ASHFoundation. The authors would like to thank the participants for their kind cooperation and interest.",

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AU - Astolfi, Arianna

AU - Kirk, Karen Iler

N1 - Funding Information: This work was funded by the Campus Research Board Awards (Grant No. RB20006) from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the 2019 New Century Scholars Research Grant from ASHFoundation. The authors would like to thank the participants for their kind cooperation and interest.

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Y1 - 2020/11/1

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Effect of masks on speech intelligibility in auralized classrooms

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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