Effects of speaking style on speech intelligibility for Mandarin-speaking cochlear implant users.

ABSTRACT: Cochlear implant (CI) users' speech understanding may be influenced by different speaking styles. In this study, speech recognition was measured in Mandarin-speaking CI and normal-hearing (NH) subjects for sentences produced according to four styles: slow, normal, fast, and whispered. CI subjects were tested using their clinical processors; NH subjects were tested while listening to a four-channel CI simulation. Performance gradually worsened with increasing speaking rate and was much poorer with whispered speech. CI performance was generally similar to NH performance with the four-channel simulation. Results suggest that some speaking styles, especially whispering, may negatively affect Mandarin-speaking CI users' speech understanding.

SUBMITTER: Li Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3112182 | biostudies-other | 2011 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other