title: Effects of fundamental frequency and vocal-tract length cues on sentence segregation by listeners with hearing loss.
abstract: The purpose was to determine the effect of hearing loss on the ability to separate competing talkers using talker differences in fundamental frequency (F0) and apparent vocal-tract length (VTL). Performance of 13 adults with hearing loss and 6 adults with normal hearing was measured using the Coordinate Response Measure. For listeners with hearing loss, the speech was amplified and filtered according to the NAL-RP hearing aid prescription. Target-to-competition ratios varied from 0 to 9 dB. The target sentence was randomly assigned to the higher or lower values of F0 or VTL on each trial. Performance improved for F0 differences up to 9 and 6 semitones for people with normal hearing and hearing loss, respectively, but only when the target talker had the higher F0. Recognition for the lower F0 target improved when trial-to-trial uncertainty was removed (9-semitone condition). Scores improved with increasing differences in VTL for the normal-hearing group. On average, hearing-impaired listeners did not benefit from VTL cues, but substantial inter-subject variability was observed. The amount of benefit from VTL cues was related to the average hearing loss in the 1-3-kHz region when the target talker had the shorter VTL.
authors: San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182-1518, USA. cmackers@mail.sdsu.edu
authors: Carol L
authors: CL
authors: Mackersie
authors: James
authors: J
authors: Dewey
authors: Lesli A
authors: LA
authors: Guthrie
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001302:Audiometry, Speech; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000503:physiopathology; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D032882:Comprehension; D003463:Cues; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects*; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D010898:Pitch Perception; D011897:Random Allocation; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013065:Speech Intelligibility; D013067:Speech Perception; D014827:Vocal Cords / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*