Do nonnative listeners benefit as much as native listeners from spatial cues that release speech from masking?

Ezzatian, Payam; Avivi, Meital; Schneider, Bruce A.

doi:10.1016/j.specom.2010.04.001

Cited by 32 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Thus, non-native listeners’ overall less familiarity with English may have contributed to the poorer performance observed for the non-native listeners on PRESTO. Differences in WordFam scores obtained here replicate earlier studies demonstrating the important contribution of lexical knowledge in speech perception in an L2 (e.g., Bradlow and Pisoni, 1999; Ezzatian et al, 2010; Bundgaard-Nielsen et al, 2011), and recognizing highly variable speech (Tamati et al, 2013). Taken together, findings from the current study and previous studies suggest that poor speech recognition abilities in high-variability listening conditions in noise may be associated with the use of higher-order context based on lexical knowledge and the organization of words in lexical memory (e.g., Pisoni et al, 1985; Altieri et al, 2010).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

“…This result was surprising given the earlier results of Tamati et al (2013), and other research findings demonstrating the influence of lexical knowledge in an L2 (e.g., Bradlow and Pisoni, 1999; Ezzatian et al, 2010; Bundgaard-Nielsen et al, 2011). It is possible that vocabulary knowledge did not emerge as a significant predictor of high-variability keyword recognition accuracy because the WordFam scores for the non-native listeners were very low and displayed little individual variability.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 73%

“…Listeners are able to use lexical knowledge to recognize words from partial and degraded information (e.g., Pisoni et al, 1985; Altieri et al, 2010). Non-native listeners who have less experience with English words have more difficulty using their downstream lexical knowledge to help resolve ambiguous or compromised acoustic-phonetic information to arrive at the correct lexical item (e.g., Bradlow and Pisoni, 1999; Ezzatian et al, 2010; Bundgaard-Nielsen et al, 2011). …”

Section: The Current Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Non-native Listeners’ Recognition of High-Variability Speech Using PRESTO

Tamati¹,

Pisoni²

2014

J Am Acad Audiol

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Background Natural variability in speech is a significant challenge to robust successful spoken word recognition. In everyday listening environments, listeners must quickly adapt and adjust to multiple sources of variability in both the signal and listening environments. High-variability speech may be particularly difficult to understand for non-native listeners, who have less experience with the second language (L2) phonological system and less detailed knowledge of sociolinguistic variation of the L2. Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of high-variability sentences on non-native speech recognition and to explore the underlying sources of individual differences in speech recognition abilities of non-native listeners. Research Design Participants completed two sentence recognition tasks involving high-variability and low-variability sentences. They also completed a battery of behavioral tasks and self-report questionnaires designed to assess their indexical processing skills, vocabulary knowledge, and several core neurocognitive abilities. Study Sample Native speakers of Mandarin (n = 25) living in the United States recruited from the Indiana University community participated in the current study. A native comparison group consisted of scores obtained from native speakers of English (n = 21) in the Indiana University community taken from an earlier study. Data Collection and Analysis Speech recognition in high-variability listening conditions was assessed with a sentence recognition task using sentences from PRESTO (Perceptually Robust English Sentence Test Open-Set) mixed in 6-talker multitalker babble. Speech recognition in low-variability listening conditions was assessed using sentences from HINT (Hearing In Noise Test) mixed in 6-talker multitalker babble. Indexical processing skills were measured using a talker discrimination task, a gender discrimination task, and a forced-choice regional dialect categorization task. Vocabulary knowledge was assessed with the WordFam word familiarity test, and executive functioning was assessed with the BRIEF-A (Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Function – Adult Version) self-report questionnaire. Scores from the non-native listeners on behavioral tasks and self-report questionnaires were compared with scores obtained from native listeners tested in a previous study and were examined for individual differences. Results Non-native keyword recognition scores were significantly lower on PRESTO sentences than on HINT sentences. Non-native listeners’ keyword recognition scores were also lower than native listeners’ scores on both sentence recognition tasks. Differences in performance on the sentence recognition tasks between non-native and native listeners were larger on PRESTO than on HINT, although group differences varied by signal-to-noise ratio. The non-native and native groups also differed in the ability to categorize talkers by region of origin and in vocabulary knowledge. Individual non-native word recognition accuracy o...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 73%

Section: The Current Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Non-native Listeners’ Recognition of High-Variability Speech Using PRESTO

Tamati¹,

Pisoni²

2014

J Am Acad Audiol

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“…Given evidence that bilingual experience can enhance the neural representation of sound [80][81][82], it seems unlikely that greater difficulties with speech perception in noise in bilinguals stem from sensory deficits. Rather, these difficulties may result from the effects of reduced exposure, lower competency and smaller vocabulary in the target language [83,84], as well as interference from activation of similar words in the non-target language in the case of ambiguous speech [62]. The training effects reported here were not influenced by age of English language acquisition, and therefore represent the first evidence that musical experience confers advantages for speech perception in noise in bilinguals, as well as monolinguals.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

Music training improves speech-in-noise perception: Longitudinal evidence from a community-based music program

Slater

Skoe

Strait

et al. 2015

Behavioural Brain Research

142

111

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“…They varied similarity according to the language of the target and masker talkers (i.e., target in one language, masker in the same or different language while also manipulating whether the languages were primary, secondary or not understood by the listener; cf. Ezzatian et al, 2010) and whether target and masker speech were at the same or different level of semantic content (i.e., semantically meaningful or "anomalous"). For both manipulations-language and semantic content-the observed amount of informational masking increased when the target and masker speech was similar as compared to dissimilar according to their criteria.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of syntax in maintaining the integrity of streams of speech

Kidd

Mason

Best

2014

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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This study examined the ability of listeners to utilize syntactic structure to extract a target stream of speech from among competing sounds. Target talkers were identified by voice or location, which was held constant throughout a test utterance, and paired with correct or incorrect (random word order) target sentence syntax. Both voice and location provided reliable cues for identifying target speech even when other features varied unpredictably. The target sentences were masked either by predominantly energetic maskers (noise bursts) or by predominantly informational maskers (similar speech in random word order). When the maskers were noise bursts, target sentence syntax had relatively minor effects on identification performance. However, when the maskers were other talkers, correct target sentence syntax resulted in significantly better speech identification performance than incorrect syntax. Furthermore, conformance to correct syntax alone was sufficient to accurately identify the target speech. The results were interpreted as supporting the idea that the predictability of the elements comprising streams of speech, as manifested by syntactic structure, is an important factor in binding words together into coherent streams. Furthermore, these findings suggest that predictability is particularly important for maintaining the coherence of an auditory stream over time under conditions high in informational masking.

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Do nonnative listeners benefit as much as native listeners from spatial cues that release speech from masking?

Cited by 32 publications

References 39 publications

Non-native Listeners’ Recognition of High-Variability Speech Using PRESTO

Non-native Listeners’ Recognition of High-Variability Speech Using PRESTO

Music training improves speech-in-noise perception: Longitudinal evidence from a community-based music program

The role of syntax in maintaining the integrity of streams of speech

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