ABSTRACT

Objectives: This study investigated whether there is a measurable effect of gaze direction on speech intelligibility in a “cocktail party” listening situation.

Method: The participants in the study were presented sequences of digits from five loud- speakers positioned at 0°, ± 15°, and ± 30° azimuth, and were then asked to repeat back the digits presented from a designated target loudspeaker.

Results: The study showed that gaze direction can have a small but noticeable impact on a listener's ability to understand speech in a noisy environment with multiple speakers. This finding builds upon previous research that used less complex setups to investigate the role of gaze direction in speech intelligibility.

Conclusion: The current study found that performance was best when the gaze direction of the individual aligned with the location of the talker. Thus, suggesting optimal performance in a cocktail party listening depends on the spatial alignment of auditory and visual attention.