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Previous studies predominantly focused on spatial configurations within the frontal hemifield, overlooking the ipsilateral side and the entire median plane, where localization confusion often occurs. This study investigated the impact of spatial and F0 separation on intelligibility under the above-mentioned underexplored spatial configurations. The speech reception thresholds were measured through three experiments for scenarios involving two to four talkers, either in the ipsilateral horizontal plane or in the entire median plane, utilizing monotonized speech with varying F0s as stimuli. The results revealed that spatial separation in symmetrical positions (front-back symmetry in the ipsilateral horizontal plane or front-back, up-down symmetry in the median plane) contributes positively to intelligibility. Both target direction and relative target-masker separation influence the masking release attributed to spatial separation. As the number of talkers exceeds two, the masking release from spatial separation diminishes. Nevertheless, F0 separation remains as a remarkably effective cue and could even facilitate spatial separation in improving intelligibility. Further analysis indicated that current intelligibility models encounter difficulties in accurately predicting intelligibility in scenarios explored in this study.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1121\/10.0025857","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,7]],"date-time":"2024-05-07T22:04:45Z","timestamp":1715119485000},"page":"2934-2947","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1063\/aip-crossmark-policy-page","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Effects of spatial configuration and fundamental frequency on speech intelligibility in multiple-talker conditions in the ipsilateral horizontal plane and median plane"],"prefix":"10.1121","volume":"155","author":[{"given":"Dingding","family":"Yao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Speech Acoustics and Content Understanding, Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences 1 , Beijing 100190, China"},{"name":"University of Chinese Academy of Sciences 2 , Beijing 100049, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jiale","family":"Zhao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Speech Acoustics and Content Understanding, Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences 1 , Beijing 100190, China"},{"name":"University of Chinese Academy of Sciences 2 , Beijing 100049, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Linyi","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Speech Acoustics and Content Understanding, Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences 1 , Beijing 100190, China"},{"name":"University of Chinese Academy of Sciences 2 , Beijing 100049, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zengqiang","family":"Shang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Speech Acoustics and Content Understanding, Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences 1 , Beijing 100190, China"},{"name":"University of Chinese Academy of Sciences 2 , Beijing 100049, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jianjun","family":"Gu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Speech Acoustics and Content Understanding, Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences 1 , Beijing 100190, China"},{"name":"University of Chinese Academy of Sciences 2 , Beijing 100049, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yunan","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beihang University 3 , Beijing 100191, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Maoshen","family":"Jia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Information Technology, Beijing University of Technology 4 , Beijing 100124, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6272-9169","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Junfeng","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Speech Acoustics and Content Understanding, Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences 1 , Beijing 100190, China"},{"name":"University of Chinese Academy of Sciences 2 , Beijing 100049, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"231","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"2024053121203266900_c1","first-page":"179","article-title":"Fundamental frequency and the intelligibility of competing voices","year":"1999"},{"key":"2024053121203266900_c2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"5257","DOI":"10.3390\/app10155257","article-title":"Spatial unmasking effect on speech reception threshold in the median  plane","volume":"10","year":"2020","journal-title":"Appl. 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