Predicting Preference Judgments of Individual Normal and Hearing-Impaired Listeners With Gaussian Processes

A probabilistic kernel approach to pairwise preference learning based on Gaussian processes is applied to predict preference judgments for sound quality degradation mechanisms that might be present in a hearing aid. Subjective sound quality comparisons for 14 normal-hearing and 18 hearing-impaired s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on audio, speech, and language processing speech, and language processing, 2011-05, Vol.19 (4), p.811-821
Main Authors: Groot, P C, Heskes, T, Dijkstra, T M H, Kates, J M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Additive noise
Applied sciences
Auditory system
Bayes procedures
Clipping
Degradation
Distortion
Distortion measurement
Exact sciences and technology
Gaussian process (GP)
Gaussian processes
Hearing aids
Information, signal and communications theory
Judgments
Kernel
Kernels
Nonlinear distortion
Nonlinearity
pairwise comparisons
Predictive models
Probability theory
Psychoacoustic models
Signal and communications theory
Signal processing algorithms
Signal representation. Spectral analysis
Signal, noise
Sound
subjective quality measures
Telecommunications and information theory
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Summary:A probabilistic kernel approach to pairwise preference learning based on Gaussian processes is applied to predict preference judgments for sound quality degradation mechanisms that might be present in a hearing aid. Subjective sound quality comparisons for 14 normal-hearing and 18 hearing-impaired subjects were used for evaluating the predictive performance. Stimuli were sentences subjected to three kinds of distortion (additive noise, peak clipping, and center clipping) with eight levels of degradation for each distortion type. The kernel approach gives a significant improvement in preference predictions of hearing-impaired subjects by individualizing the learning process. A significant difference is shown between normal-hearing and hearing-impaired subjects, because of nonlinearities in the perception of hearing-impaired subjects. In particular, hearing-impaired subjects have significant nonlinear preference judgments when making pairwise comparisons between peak clipped sentences with different clipping thresholds. The probabilistic kernel approach is shown to be robust when generalizing over distortions and over subjects.
ISSN:1558-7916
2329-9290
1558-7924
2329-9304
DOI:10.1109/TASL.2010.2064311