title: The influence of lexical-access ability and vocabulary knowledge on measures of speech recognition in noise.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The main objective was to investigate the effect of linguistic abilities (lexical-access ability and vocabulary size) on different measures of speech-in-noise recognition in normal-hearing listeners with various levels of language proficiency.
  
  
  METHODS
  Speech reception thresholds (SRTs) were measured for sentences in steady-state (SRTstat) and fluctuating noise (SRTfluc), and for digit-triplets in steady-state noise (DIN). Lexical-access ability was measured with a lexical-decision test and a word-naming test. Vocabulary size was also measured. For the SRT, keyword scoring and sentence scoring were compared.
  
  
  METHODS
  To introduce variation in linguistic abilities, three groups of 24 young normal-hearing listeners were included: higher-educated native, lower-educated native, and higher-educated non-native listeners.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Lexical-access ability was most accurately measured with combined results of lexical decision and word naming. Lexical-access ability explained 60% of the variance in SRT. The effect of linguistic abilities on SRTs was up to 5.6 dB for SRTstat and 8 dB for SRTfluc. Using keyword scoring reduced this effect by approximately 1.5 dB. For DIN the effect of linguistic ability was less than 1 dB.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Lexical-access ability is an important predictor of SRTs in normal-hearing listeners. These results are important to consider in the interpretation of speech-in-noise scores of hearing-impaired listeners.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery , Section Ear & Hearing, and EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center , Amsterdam , The Netherlands and.
authors.forename: Marre W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Kaandorp
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychology , University of Amsterdam , Amsterdam , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Annette M B
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: De Groot
authors.affiliation: a Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery , Section Ear & Hearing, and EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center , Amsterdam , The Netherlands and.
authors.forename: Joost M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Festen
authors.affiliation: a Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery , Section Ear & Hearing, and EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center , Amsterdam , The Netherlands and.
authors.forename: Cas
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Smits
authors.affiliation: a Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery , Section Ear & Hearing, and EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center , Amsterdam , The Netherlands and.
authors.forename: S Theo
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Goverts
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D009622:Noise; D013069:Speech Reception Threshold Test; D014825:Vocabulary; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Speech-in-noise recognition; lexical access; normal hearing; vocabulary size