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Ferguson Database

The Ferguson Clear Speech Database was developed at Indiana University in 2002. It consists of high-quality recordings 41 talkers reading 188 sentences aloud twice: under instructions to speak as though they were having a normal conversation (conversational speech) and under instructions to speak as though they were talking to a person with hearing loss (clear speech).

Of the 188 sentences, 174 were created by inserting keywords into neutral sentence frames. Keywords were either vowels in /bVd/ context (7 tokens per vowel, each in a different frame) or monosyllabic words from the NU-6 (a separate list in each style; two tokens per word, each in a different frame). The remaining sentences, 14 per speaking style, were selected from the CID Everyday Sentence test.

Use the Ferguson database is FREE for noncommercial use. Contact Dr. Sarah Hargus Ferguson at sarah.ferguson@hsc.utah.edu for information about how to access materials.

** All presentations and publications of research carried out using materials from the Ferguson Database must include the following acknowledgment: Development of the Ferguson Clear Speech Database was supported by NIH grant DC02229 to Diane Kewley-Port.

Contact Us

Behavioral Science Building

Phone: 801-585-0036
Email: speechperception@utah.edu

Mailing Address
Speech Acoustics and Perception Laboratory
390 South 1530 East
Room 1201
Salt Lake City, UT 84112