Intelligibility of Excerpts from Conversation

Unrehearsed conversation was recorded from four talkers. Excerpts representing one or more words were then made from fluent portions of the conversations. The excerpts were presented to listeners in intelligibility tests. Average word intelligibility was calculated and examined as a function of average duration of excerpt. Excerpts ranged from 10 csec average duration, 14% correct, to 200 csec, 92% correct. For a given duration of excerpt, fast utterance was just as intelligible as slow utterance.