Articulation Testing Methods

HE transference of thought by means of speech is a very complicated, although common, process. So long as the process runs smoothly, its complications are forgotten. W h e n an auditor fails to understand the speaker, however, inquiry into the reasons for the difficulty begins. The production, the transmission, and the reception of speech constitute the three important elements of the process. To determine defects in any one of these, it is necessary to have a quantitative means of measuring the recognizability of the speech sounds t h a t the auditor hears. The term "recognizability" as used here refers to correctness with which an auditor identifies a sound as being one, or some combination, of the fundamental speech sounds, when no meaning is associated with the sounds. D u r i n g the past few years methods of measuring the recognizability of speech sounds have come into greater and greater use both in this country and abroad. In order to compare the results obtained by various crews in various languages, it is desirable to standardize the methods of test and to set up reference circuits for purposes of calibration. It is the aim of this paper to discuss the methods that have been found the most useful, not only in determining defects in transmission, but defects in the production and reception of speech as well. One needs only to tabulate the various devices that are used for transmitting speech to realize the importance of a quantitative method of rating their performance.