The influence of noise on vowel and consonant cues

Parikh, Gaurang; Loizou, Philipos C.

doi:10.1121/1.2118407

Cited by 95 publications

(88 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Furthermore, Loizou and Poroy (2001) showed that CI users need a larger spectral contrast for vowel identification than normal hearing listeners, and similar effects have been observed in the hearing impaired (Leek et al 1987). Parikh and Loizou (2005) additionally reported that background noise reduces spectral contrast, making it even more difficult for CI users to hear speech in noise. Thus, we expect that CI users with better spectral resolution will have better speech understanding in noise.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Spectral-Ripple Resolution Correlates with Speech Reception in Noise in Cochlear Implant Users

Won

Drennan

Rubinstein

2007

JARO

239

315

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Speech perception ability in noise is one of the most practical measures of success with a cochlear implant; however, with experience, this ability can change dramatically over time, making it a less than ideal tool for comparing performance among different processing strategies. This study examined performance on a spectral discrimination task and compared it to speech perception in noise. An adaptive procedure was used to determine the spectral-ripple density that subjects could discriminate. A closed-set, forced-choice adaptive procedure was used to determine speech reception thresholds for words in twotalker babble and in speech-shaped, steady-state noise. Spectral-ripple thresholds (ripples/octave) were significantly correlated with speech reception thresholds (dB SNR) in noise for 29 cochlear implant users (r = _ 0.55, p = 0.002 in two-talker babble; r = _ 0.62, p = 0.0004 in steady-state noise), demonstrating that better spectral resolution was associated with better speech perception in noise. A significant correlation was also found between the spectralripple discrimination ability and word recognition in quiet (r = 0.50, p = 0.009). In addition, test-retest reliability for spectral-ripple discrimination was good, and no learning was observed. The present study demonstrates that the spectral-ripple discrimination test, which is time efficient and nonlinguistic, would be a useful tool to evaluate cochlear implant performance with different signal processing strategies.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Spectral-Ripple Resolution Correlates with Speech Reception in Noise in Cochlear Implant Users

Won

Drennan

Rubinstein

2007

JARO

239

315

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“…A general hypothesis can be constructed that released word-final stop consonants will be more likely to ease word recognition tasks than their unreleased counterparts, due to additional acoustic cues provided. A possible exception, however, is that patients with high-frequency hearing loss may find this feature not as helpful, given that voiceless stop bursts (e.g., /t/ or /k/) have the noise spectrum highly concentrated in high frequency ranges [44][45][46]. Although the ASHA guidelines [3] do not promote or advise against the release of word-final stops, the current study raises attention to careful administration of SRT testing in clinical practice, especially in regards to spondee production.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Stress, Stop Release, and Familiarization on Speech Recognition Thresholds

Eggebraaten¹,

Bae²

2017

J Phonet and Audiol

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Objective: This study examined outcomes of common procedural variations of speech recognition threshold (SRT) testing, specifically related to the effects of equal syllable stress, word-final stop consonant release, and priorfamiliarization, with the participants' language status taken into account.Methods: SRTs were obtained from 40 adults with normal hearing. Twenty participants received priorfamiliarization with the spondee list and the other 20 received no prior-familiarization. Repeated SRT tests were administered using three different recordings which varied in syllable stress and word-final stop release patterns. Results:The group with prior-familiarization demonstrated a threshold that was significantly lower than the group without prior-familiarization, by approximately 5 dB HL. Despite the statistically significant effects of equal syllable stress and word-final stop release on SRTs, the magnitude of SRT changes elicited by these acoustic-phonetic variations was only slightly above 1 dB HL. The monolinguals generally outperformed the bilinguals in SRT outcomes with the threshold difference less than 3 dB HL. Conclusion:Findings from the present study suggest that familiarizing listeners with test vocabulary prior to SRT administration should continue to remain an important procedural requirement. Future research addressing the extent to which acoustic-phonetic variations of spondee production affect SRTs in individuals with hearing impairments is warranted.

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“…3) compared to that of vowels. This was not surprising since the low-energy consonants are masked more easily by background noise than the high-energy vowels (Parikh and Loizou, 2005) and most noise-reduction algorithms perform poorly in segments containing consonants. It is thus possible that if noise reduction algorithms could somehow preserve or maintain a larger portion of the input SNR during the low-energy consonant segments, then improvement in speech intelligibility might be noted.…”

Section: Evaluation Of Proposed Intelligibility Measurementioning

confidence: 99%

Extending the articulation index to account for non-linear distortions introduced by noise-suppression algorithms

Loizou

2011

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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The conventional articulation index (AI) measure cannot be applied in situations where non-linear operations are involved and additive noise is present. This is because the definitions of the target and masker signals become vague following non-linear processing, as both the target and masker signals are affected. The aim of the present work is to modify the basic form of the AI measure to account for non-linear processing. This was done using a new definition of the output or effective SNR obtained following non-linear processing. The proposed output SNR definition for a specific band was designed to handle cases where the non-linear processing affects predominantly the target signal rather than the masker signal. The proposed measure also takes into consideration the fact that the input SNR in a specific band cannot be improved following any form of non-linear processing. Overall, the proposed measure quantifies the proportion of input band SNR preserved or transmitted in each band after non-linear processing. High correlation (r ¼ 0.9) was obtained with the proposed measure when evaluated with intelligibility scores obtained by normal-hearing listeners in 72 noisy conditions involving noise-suppressed speech corrupted in four different real-world maskers.

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The influence of noise on vowel and consonant cues

Cited by 95 publications

References 48 publications

Spectral-Ripple Resolution Correlates with Speech Reception in Noise in Cochlear Implant Users

Spectral-Ripple Resolution Correlates with Speech Reception in Noise in Cochlear Implant Users

Effects of Stress, Stop Release, and Familiarization on Speech Recognition Thresholds

Extending the articulation index to account for non-linear distortions introduced by noise-suppression algorithms

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