Exploring listeners' speech rate preferences

Fast speech may reduce intelligibility, but there is little agree-ment as to whether listeners benefit from slower speech in noisyconditions. The current study explored the relationship betweenspeech rate and masker properties using a listening preferencetechnique in which participants were able to control speech ratein real time. Spanish listeners adjusted speech rate while lis-tening to word sequences in quiet, in stationary noise at signal-to-noise ratios of 0, +6 and +12dB, and in modulated noisefor 5 envelope modulation rates. Following selection of a pre-ferred rate, participants went on to identify words presented atthat rate. Listeners favoured faster speech in quiet, chose in-creasingly slower rates in increasing levels of stationary noise,and showed a preference for speech rates that led to a contrastwith masker envelope modulation rates. Participants showeddistinct preferences even when intelligibility was near ceilinglevels. These outcomes suggest that individuals attempt to com-pensate for the decrement in cognitive resources availability inmore adverse conditions by reducing speech rate and are able toexploit differences in modulation properties of the target speechand masker. The listening preference approach provides in-sights into factors such as listening effort that are not measuredin intelligibility-based metrics.