Petri Korhonen, Christopher Slugocki, Francis Kuk, Heidi Peeters
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Purpose: Hearing aid (HA) processing delay results in asynchronous overlap of the input sound and the delayed amplified sound at the eardrum in open-ear fittings. This may distort the temporal cues used for stop-consonant voicing distinctions. The current study evaluated the impact of HA processing delay on voiced-voiceless categorization of syllable initial consonants /d/ and /t/ for a range of voice onset times (VOTs).
Method: Nineteen older listeners (Mage = 73 years) with mild-moderate sensorineural hearing loss participated. All listeners performed the voiced-voiceless categorization task in double-blind within-subjects design. Thirteen stimulus tokens along the /di:/ - /ti:/ continuum were created by varying VOTs. Stimuli were then processed using an HA simulator, which simulated the overall sound pressure levels measured at the eardrum in open-ear fittings with four processing delay times (0, 0.5, 5, and 8 ms). Individualized stimuli were generated for each listener based on their audiogram and presented via calibrated ear inserts at the most comfortable listening level. Performance across all VOT intervals was fitted with psychometric functions, which were then used to estimate the voiced-voiceless crossover point and the slope parameter for each simulated delay condition.
Results: The crossover point along the voiced-voiceless continuum shifted systematically with increased processing delay toward voiced /di:/ over unvoiced /ti:/ percepts. The shift in the crossover point between the 0-ms reference condition and the 8-ms processing delay condition corresponded to 5.8 ms of change in VOT. The 8-ms processing delay condition resulted in significantly shallower categorization slopes compared to the 0- and 0.5-ms delay conditions.
Conclusions: Temporal distortions created by HA processing delay in open-ear fittings impacted voicing perception of syllable initial stop-consonant stimuli near the voiced-voiceless crossover point. Short HA processing delay should be considered for open-ear fittings to preserve the natural VOT cues used for voicing detection.
期刊介绍:
Mission: AJA publishes peer-reviewed research and other scholarly articles pertaining to clinical audiology methods and issues, and serves as an outlet for discussion of related professional and educational issues and ideas. The journal is an international outlet for research on clinical research pertaining to screening, diagnosis, management and outcomes of hearing and balance disorders as well as the etiologies and characteristics of these disorders. The clinical orientation of the journal allows for the publication of reports on audiology as implemented nationally and internationally, including novel clinical procedures, approaches, and cases. AJA seeks to advance evidence-based practice by disseminating the results of new studies as well as providing a forum for critical reviews and meta-analyses of previously published work.
Scope: The broad field of clinical audiology, including audiologic/aural rehabilitation; balance and balance disorders; cultural and linguistic diversity; detection, diagnosis, prevention, habilitation, rehabilitation, and monitoring of hearing loss; hearing aids, cochlear implants, and hearing-assistive technology; hearing disorders; lifespan perspectives on auditory function; speech perception; and tinnitus.