Intelligibility of Known and Unknown Message Sets

The effect of the frequency of occurrence of words upon their intelligibility in noise was examined under two conditions: (1) in unknown message sets where the specific words under test were initially unknown to the listener; and (2) in known message sets where the specific words under test were known to the listener. Substantial effects of word frequency are observed with unknown message sets, but not with known message sets. In known message sets, the prime factor determining intelligibility is the phonemic interconfusability among the words. In unknown message sets, it is suggested that the important determinant of the intelligibility of a word is its frequency of occurrence relative to the frequencies of the words with which it might be confused.