title: Effects of low harmonics on tone identification in natural and vocoded speech.
abstract: This study investigated the contribution of low-frequency harmonics to identifying Mandarin tones in natural and vocoded speech in quiet and noisy conditions. Results showed that low-frequency harmonics of natural speech led to highly accurate tone identification; however, for vocoded speech, low-frequency harmonics yielded lower tone identification than stimuli with full harmonics, except for tone 4. Analysis of the correlation between tone accuracy and the amplitude-F0 correlation index suggested that "more" speech contents (i.e., more harmonics) did not necessarily yield better tone recognition for vocoded speech, especially when the amplitude contour of the signals did not co-vary with the F0 contour.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station A1100, Austin, Texas 78712, USA. changliu@utexas.edu
authors.forename: Chang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Behnam
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Azimi
authors.forename: Qudsia
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Tahmina
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hu
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001302:Audiometry, Speech; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D010898:Pitch Perception; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013065:Speech Intelligibility; D013067:Speech Perception; D055815:Young Adult