Children's perception of speech produced in a two-talker background

Mallory Baker, Emily Buss, Adam Jacks, Crystal Taylor, Lori J. Leibolda

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

13 Scopus citations

Abstract

Purpose: This study evaluated the degree to which children benefit from the acoustic modifications made by talkers when they produce speech in noise. Method: A repeated measures design compared the speech perception performance of children (5-11 years) and adults in a 2-talker masker. Target speech was produced in a 2-talker background or in quiet. In Experiment 1, recognition with the 2 target sets was assessed using an adaptive spondee identification procedure. In Experiment 2, the benefit of speech produced in a 2-talker background was assessed using an open-set, monosyllabic word recognition task at a fixed signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Results: Children performed more poorly than adults, regardless of whether the target speech was produced in quiet or in a 2-talker background. A small improvement in the SNR required to identify spondees was observed for both children and adults using speech produced in a 2-talker background (Experiment 1). Similarly, average open-set word recognition scores were 11 percentage points higher for both age groups using speech produced in a 2-talker background compared with quiet (Experiment 2). Conclusion: The results indicate that children can use the acoustic modifications of speech produced in a 2-talker background to improve masked speech perception, as previously demonstrated for adults.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)327-337
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
Volume57
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2014

Keywords

  • Assessment
  • Audiology
  • Children
  • Development
  • Speech perception

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Language and Linguistics
  • Linguistics and Language
  • Speech and Hearing

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