title: Perceptual learning of noise vocoded words: effects of feedback and lexicality.
abstract: Speech comprehension is resistant to acoustic distortion in the input, reflecting listeners' ability to adjust perceptual processes to match the speech input. This adjustment is reflected in improved comprehension of distorted speech with experience. For noise vocoding, a manipulation that removes spectral detail from speech, listeners' word report showed a significantly greater improvement over trials for listeners that heard clear speech presentations before rather than after hearing distorted speech (clear-then-distorted compared with distorted-then-clear feedback, in Experiment 1). This perceptual learning generalized to untrained words suggesting a sublexical locus for learning and was equivalent for word and nonword training stimuli (Experiment 2). These findings point to the crucial involvement of phonological short-term memory and top-down processes in the perceptual learning of noise-vocoded speech. Similar processes may facilitate comprehension of speech in an unfamiliar accent or following cochlear implantation.
authors: Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK. alexis.hervais-adelman@mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk
authors: Alexis
authors: A
authors: Hervais-Adelman
authors: Matthew H
authors: MH
authors: Davis
authors: Ingrid S
authors: IS
authors: Johnsrude
authors: Robert P
authors: RP
authors: Carlyon
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005246:Feedback / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D009622:Noise; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D010700:Phonetics; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D012016:Reference Values; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013065:Speech Intelligibility; D013067:Speech Perception