Set-size procedures for controlling variations in speech-reception performance with a fluctuating masker.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Bernstein JG
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3477195 | biostudies-other | 2012 Oct
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
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Project description:Speech-on-speech recognition differs substantially across stimuli, but it is unclear what role linguistic features of the masker play in this variability. The linguistic similarity hypothesis suggests similarity between sentence-level semantic content of the target and masker speech increases masking. Sentence recognition in a two-talker masker was evaluated with respect to semantic content and syntactic structure of the masker (experiment 1) and linguistic similarity of the target and masker (experiment 2). Target and masker sentences were semantically meaningful or anomalous. Masker syntax was varied or the same across sentences. When other linguistic features of the masker were controlled, variability in syntactic structure across masker tokens was only relevant when the masker was played continuously (as opposed to gated); when played continuously, sentence-recognition thresholds were poorer with variable than consistent masker syntax, but this effect was small (0.5?dB). When the syntactic structure of the masker was held constant, semantic meaningfulness of the masker did not increase masking, and at times performance was better for the meaningful than the anomalous masker. These data indicate that sentence-level semantic content of the masker speech does not influence speech-on-speech masking. Further, no evidence that similarities between target/masker sentence-level semantic content increases masking was found.
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Project description:ObjectivesPrevious studies investigating speech perception in noise have typically been conducted with static masker positions. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of spatial separation of source and masker (spatial release from masking, SRM) in a moving masker setup and to evaluate the impact of adaptive beamforming in comparison with fixed directional microphones in cochlear implant (CI) users.DesignSpeech reception thresholds (SRT) were measured in S0N0 and in a moving masker setup (S0Nmove) in 12 normal hearing participants and 14 CI users (7 subjects bilateral, 7 bimodal with a hearing aid in the contralateral ear). Speech processor settings were a moderately directional microphone, a fixed beamformer, or an adaptive beamformer. The moving noise source was generated by means of wave field synthesis and was smoothly moved in a shape of a half-circle from one ear to the contralateral ear. Noise was presented in either of two conditions: continuous or modulated.ResultsSRTs in the S0Nmove setup were significantly improved compared to the S0N0 setup for both the normal hearing control group and the bilateral group in continuous noise, and for the control group in modulated noise. There was no effect of subject group. A significant effect of directional sensitivity was found in the S0Nmove setup. In the bilateral group, the adaptive beamformer achieved lower SRTs than the fixed beamformer setting. Adaptive beamforming improved SRT in both CI user groups substantially by about 3 dB (bimodal group) and 8 dB (bilateral group) depending on masker type.ConclusionsCI users showed SRM that was comparable to normal hearing subjects. In listening situations of everyday life with spatial separation of source and masker, directional microphones significantly improved speech perception with individual improvements of up to 15 dB SNR. Users of bilateral speech processors with both directional microphones obtained the highest benefit.
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Project description:Previous work demonstrated that dynamic pitch (i.e., pitch variation in speech) aids speech recognition in various types of noises. While this finding suggests dynamic pitch enhancement in target speech can benefit speech recognition in noise, it is of importance to know what noise characteristics affect dynamic pitch benefit, and who will benefit from enhanced dynamic pitch cues. Following our recent finding that temporal modulation in noise influences dynamic pitch benefit, we examined the effect of speech masker characteristics on dynamic pitch benefit. Specifically, the first goal of the study was to test the hypothesis that dynamic pitch benefit varies depending on the availability of pitch cues in the masker and the intelligibility of masker. The second goal of this study was to investigate whether older listeners as a group can benefit from dynamic pitch for speech recognition in speech maskers. In addition, individual factors of hearing loss and working memory capacity were examined for their impact on older listeners' dynamic pitch benefit. Twenty-three younger listeners with normal hearing and 37 older listeners with varying levels of hearing sensitivity participated the study, in which speech reception thresholds were measured with sentences in speech maskers. While we did not find an effect of masker characteristics on dynamic pitch benefit, the results showed older listeners can benefit from dynamic pitch for recognizing speech in speech maskers. The data also suggest that among those older listeners with hearing loss, dynamic pitch benefit is stronger for individuals with higher working memory capacity. This can be attributed to their ability to exploit facilitated lexical access in processing of degraded speech signal.
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Project description:Howard-Jones and Rosen [(1993). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 93, 2915-2922] investigated the ability to integrate glimpses of speech that are separated in time and frequency using a "checkerboard" masker, with asynchronous amplitude modulation (AM) across frequency. Asynchronous glimpsing was demonstrated only for spectrally wide frequency bands. It is possible that the reduced evidence of spectro-temporal integration with narrower bands was due to spread of masking at the periphery. The present study tested this hypothesis with a dichotic condition, in which the even- and odd-numbered bands of the target speech and asynchronous AM masker were presented to opposite ears, minimizing the deleterious effects of masking spread. For closed-set consonant recognition, thresholds were 5.1-8.5 dB better for dichotic than for monotic asynchronous AM conditions. Results were similar for closed-set word recognition, but for open-set word recognition the benefit of dichotic presentation was more modest and level dependent, consistent with the effects of spread of masking being level dependent. There was greater evidence of asynchronous glimpsing in the open-set than closed-set tasks. Presenting stimuli dichotically supported asynchronous glimpsing with narrower frequency bands than previously shown, though the magnitude of glimpsing was reduced for narrower bandwidths even in some dichotic conditions.
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Project description:Purpose:Several investigators have compared infants' detection of speech in speech and nonspeech maskers to evaluate developmental differences in masking. Such comparisons have produced contradictory results, possibly because each investigation used different stimuli. The current study examined target and masker effects on infants' and adults' detection of speech. Method:An observer-based procedure was used to compare infants' and adults' detection of the vowel /ʌ/ and the word "baby" in a 2-talker speech masker and matched speech-spectrum noise. The measure of performance was d'. A total of 43 7-month-old infants and 41 young adults were randomly assigned to 1 target-masker combination condition, and mean performance was compared across conditions at each age. Results:Adults' detection was influenced by an interaction between the target and the masker: Adults detected the vowel better in the 2-talker masker than in speech-spectrum noise but detected the word equally well in the 2 maskers. In contrast, infants detected both targets better in speech-spectrum noise than in the 2-talker masker. Conclusions:The relative effects of the masker on target detection by infants and adults depend on the target to be detected. Thus, conclusions drawn about differences between infants and adults in the mechanisms responsible for masking will depend on the stimuli. Standardization of speech stimuli in developmental research would help clarify the nature of infants' segregation difficulties. Supplemental Material:https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.5613139.
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