How does a background conversation affect a foreground conversation? In this scenario,
and unlike traditional studies of noise-induced speech modification (Lombard speech),
listeners have to cope with the additional challenge of competing speech material. In the
current study, pairs of talkers engaged in natural dialogs in the absence or presence of
another talker pair. Changes in speech level revealed only a small energetic masking effect
of the background pair, but very large modifications in prosodic parameters (F0, speech rate) …