title: The perception of sentence stress in cochlear implant recipients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Sentence stress is a vital attribute of speech since it indicates the importance of specific words within an utterance. Basic acoustic correlates of stress are syllable duration, intensity, and fundamental frequency (F0). Objectives of the study were to determine cochlear implant (CI) users' perception of the acoustic correlates and to uncover which cues are used for stress identification.
  
  
  METHODS
  Several experiments addressed the discrimination of changes in syllable duration, intensity, and F0 as well as stress identification based on these cues. Moreover, the discrimination of combined cues and identification of stress in conversational speech was examined. Both natural utterances and artificial manipulations of the acoustic cues were used as stimuli.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Discrimination of syllable duration did not differ significantly between CI recipients and a control group of normal-hearing listeners. In contrast, CI users performed significantly worse on tasks of discrimination and stress identification based on F0 as well as on intensity. Results from these measurements were significantly correlated with the ability to identify stress in conversational speech. Discrimination performance for covarying F0 and intensity changes was more strongly correlated to identification performance than was found for discrimination of either F0 or intensity alone. Syllable duration was not related to stress identification in natural utterances.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The outcome emphasizes the importance of both F0 and intensity for CI users' identification of sentence-based stress. Both cues were used separately for stress perception, but combining the cues provided extra benefit for most of the subjects.
authors.affiliation: Jean Uhrmacher Institute for Clinical ENT Research, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany. hartmut.meister@uni-koeln.de
authors.forename: Hartmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Meister
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Landwehr
authors.forename: Verena
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pyschny
authors.forename: Petra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Walger
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003054:Cochlear Implants / Q000523:psychology*; D003463:Cues; D003638:Deafness / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010700:Phonetics; D013060:Speech; D013067:Speech Perception; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult