Lexical information drives perceptual learning of distorted speech: evidence from the comprehension of noise-vocoded sentences.
Speech comprehension is resistant to acoustic distortion in the input, reflecting listeners' ability to adjust perceptual processes to match the speech input. For noise-vocoded sentences, a manipulation that removes spectral detail from speech, listeners' reporting improved from near 0% to 70% correct over 30 sentences (Experiment 1). Learning was enhanced if listeners heard distorted sentences while they knew the identity of the undistorted target (Experiments 2 and 3). Learning was absent when listeners were trained with nonword sentences (Experiments 4 and 5), although the meaning of the training sentences did not affect learning (Experiment 5). Perceptual learning of noise-vocoded speech depends on higher level information, consistent with top-down, lexically driven learning. Similar processes may facilitate comprehension of speech in an unfamiliar accent or following cochlear implantation.
Davis
Matthew H
MH
MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK. matt.davis@mrccbu.cbu.cam.ac.uk
Johnsrude
Ingrid S
IS
Hervais-Adelman
Alexis
A
Taylor
Karen
K
McGettigan
Carolyn
C
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects*; D010465:Perception; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013067:Speech Perception; D014825:Vocabulary