ArticlePloS one2021
Effects of face masks on speech recognition in multi-talker babble noise.
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 96 citations in OpenAlex.
- Understanding discourse in face-to-face settings: The impact of multimodal cues and listening conditions.Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition · 2025Article
- Effects of Distance, Noise, and Personal Respiratory Protective Equipment on Speech Comprehension in Simulated Critical Care Setting.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Article
- Effects of talker gender and face masks on the speech recognition of 6-year-old children in a classroom.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- The impact of face masks on face-to-face neural tracking of speech: Auditory and visual obstacles.Heliyon · 2024Article
- The impact of face coverings on audio-visual contributions to communication with conversational speech.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2024Article
- Influence of face masks on recalibration of phonetic categories.Attention, perception & psychophysics · 2023Article
- Article
- Effects on communication due to face mask use: an integrative review.Revista brasileira de enfermagem · 2023Review
- The effects of face mask on speech production and its implication for forensic speaker identification-A cross-linguistic study.PloS one · 2023Article
- Multisensory effects of mask wearing on speech intelligibility and the benefit of multilingualism.CoDAS · 2023Article
- Effects of face masks and acoustical environments on speech recognition by preschool children in an auralised classroom.Applied acoustics. Acoustique applique. Angewandte Akustik · 2023Article
- An Acoustic-Phonetic Approach to Effects of Face Masks on Speech Intelligibility.Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR · 2022Article
- Mask-Wearing Behaviors after Two Years of Wearing Masks Due to COVID-19 in Korea: A Cross-Sectional Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Wide-Bandwidth Nanocomposite-Sensor Integrated Smart Mask for Tracking Multiphase Respiratory Activities.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2022Article
- The perception of intonational and emotional speech prosody produced with and without a face mask: an exploratory individual differences study.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2022Article
- The contribution of respiratory and hearing protection use to psychological distress in the workplace: a scoping review.International archives of occupational and environmental health · 2022Article
- Effect of wearing personal protective equipment on acoustic characteristics and speech perception during COVID-19.Applied acoustics. Acoustique applique. Angewandte Akustik · 2022Article
- Speaking with a KN95 face mask: a within-subjects study on speaker adaptation and strategies to improve intelligibility.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2022Article
- Health sciences students' perception of the communicative impacts of face coverings during the COVID-19 pandemic at a South African University.The South African journal of communication disorders = Die Suid-Afrikaanse tydskrif vir Kommunikasieafwykings · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Face masks are an important tool for preventing the spread of COVID-19. However, it is unclear how different types of masks affect speech recognition in different levels of background noise. To address this, we investigated the effects of four masks (a surgical mask, N95 respirator, and two cloth masks) on recognition of spoken sentences in multi-talker babble. In low levels of background noise, masks had little to no effect, with no more than a 5.5% decrease in mean accuracy compared to a no-mask condition. In high levels of noise, mean accuracy was 2.8-18.2% lower than the no-mask condition, but the surgical mask continued to show no significant difference. The results demonstrate that different types of masks generally yield similar accuracy in low levels of background noise, but differences between masks become more apparent in high levels of noise.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.