Listeners often experience challenges understanding an interlocutor (target) in the presence of competing talkers (maskers). However, during linguistic release from masking (LRM), this difficulty decreases for native language targets (English) when paired with different language maskers (e.g., Dutch). There is considerable evidence that the linguistic similarity between target-masker pairs determines the size of LRM. This study investigated whether and how LRM is affected when the streams also differed in talker sex. Experiment 1 investigated intelligibility for English targets in sex-matched and mismatched conditions with Dutch or English maskers. While typical LRM effects were obtained when sex was matched, opposite effects were detected when sex was mismatched. In experiment 2, Mandarin maskers were used to increase linguistic dissimilarity and elicit stronger LRM effects. Despite the greater linguistic dissimilarity, the surprising reverse LRM effect in the sex-mismatch condition persisted. In experiment 3, the target stream was held constant and talker sex and language were manipulated in the masker. Here, expected LRM effects were obtained for both the sex-matched and sex-mismatched conditions. This indicated that the locus of the dissimilarities and not just relative properties affect LRM. Broadly, this study suggests that using naturally varying listening situations advances understanding of factors underlying LRM.

中文翻译：

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目标-屏蔽者性别不匹配对屏蔽语言释放的影响

在竞争的谈话者（掩蔽者）在场的情况下，听众经常会遇到理解对话者（目标）的挑战。然而，在从屏蔽 (LRM) 中释放语言期间，当与不同的语言屏蔽器（例如荷兰语）配对时，母语目标（英语）的难度会降低。有大量证据表明目标-掩码对之间的语言相似性决定了 LRM 的大小。这项研究调查了当流在说话者性别上也不同时 LRM 是否以及如何受到影响。实验 1 用荷兰语或英语掩蔽器研究了在性别匹配和不匹配条件下英语目标的可懂度。虽然在性别匹配时获得了典型的 LRM 效果，但相反的效果当性别不匹配时被检测到。在实验 2 中，使用普通话掩蔽器来增加语言差异并引发更强的 LRM 效果。尽管存在更大的语言差异，但性别不匹配条件下令人惊讶的反向 LRM 效应仍然存在。在实验 3 中，目标流保持不变，并且在掩蔽器中操纵说话者的性别和语言。在这里，对于性别匹配和性别不匹配的条件都获得了预期的 LRM 效果。这表明差异的轨迹而不仅仅是相对属性会影响 LRM。从广义上讲，这项研究表明，使用自然变化的聆听环境可以促进对 LRM 潜在因素的理解。