Document Detail


Vowel identification by hearing-impaired listeners in response to variation in formant frequencies.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  21297168     Owner:  NLM     Status:  Publisher    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
PURPOSE: This study examined the influence of presentation level and mild-to-moderate hearing loss on the identification of a set of vowel tokens systematically varying in the frequency locations of their second and third formants. METHOD: Five normally-hearing (NH) and five hearing-impaired (HI) listeners identified synthesized vowels that represented both highly-identifiable and ambiguous examples of /i/, //, and //. RESULTS: Response patterns of NH listeners showed significant changes with an increase in presentation level from 75 to 95 dB SPL, including increased category overlap. HI listeners, listening only at the higher level, showed greater category overlap than normal, and overall identification patterns that differed significantly from those of NH listeners. Excitation patterns based on estimates of auditory filters suggested smoothing of the internal representations, resulting in impaired formant resolution. CONCLUSIONS: Both increased presentation level for NH listeners and the presence of hearing loss produced a significant change in vowel identification for this stimulus set. Major differences were observed between NH and HI listeners in vowel category overlap and in the sharpness of boundaries between vowel tokens. It is likely that these findings reflect imprecise internal spectral representations due to reduced frequency selectivity.
Authors:
Michelle R Molis; Marjorie R Leek
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Publication Detail:
Type:  JOURNAL ARTICLE     Date:  2011-2-4
Journal Detail:
Title:  Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR     Volume:  -     ISSN:  1558-9102     ISO Abbreviation:  -     Publication Date:  2011 Feb 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2011-2-7     Completed Date:  -     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  9705610     Medline TA:  J Speech Lang Hear Res     Country:  -    
Other Details:
Languages:  ENG     Pagination:  -     Citation Subset:  -    
Affiliation:
National Center for Rehabilitative Auditory Research, Portland VA Medical Center, Portland, Oregon.
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