Beyond intelligibility testing: Development of an information theory based voice communication effectiveness test.

Speech intelligibility has been a popular measure of voice communication effectiveness. However, intelligibility measures do not account for some critical parameters in voice communication effectiveness. Task complexity, task criticality, language complexity, and time, all affect voice communication effectiveness but are not factors in speech intelligibility measures. Information theory gives the conceptual and mathematical basis for quantifying these parameters in terms of entropy, mutual information, channel rate, and channel capacity. The Voice Communications Effectiveness Test (VCET) has been developed to directly measure channel capacity of a communication ‘‘system’’ by varying these critical information theory parameters. VCET consists of a two‐way interactive communication task. Scoring is based on correct responses and time. The basis for the development of VCET, its structure, application, and preliminary performance data will be presented.