Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-1-2016
Keywords
cue weighting, cochlear implant, bimodal hearing, spectral degradation
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1177/2331216516652145
Abstract
Multiple redundant acoustic cues can contribute to the perception of a single phonemic contrast. This study investigated the effect of spectral degradation on the discriminability and perceptual saliency of acoustic cues for identification of word-final fricative voicing in “loss” versus “laws”, and possible changes that occurred when low-frequency acoustic cues were restored. Three acoustic cues that contribute to the word-final /s/-/z/ contrast (first formant frequency [F1] offset, vowel–consonant duration ratio, and consonant voicing duration) were systematically varied in synthesized words. A discrimination task measured listeners’ ability to discriminate differences among stimuli within a single cue dimension. A categorization task examined the extent to which listeners make use of a given cue to label a syllable as “loss” versus “laws” when multiple cues are available. Normal-hearing listeners were presented with stimuli that were either unprocessed, processed with an eight-channel noise-band vocoder to approximate spectral degradation in cochlear implants, or low-pass filtered. Listeners were tested in four listening conditions: unprocessed, vocoder, low-pass, and a combined vocoder + low-pass condition that simulated bimodal hearing. Results showed a negative impact of spectral degradation on F1 cue discrimination and a trading relation between spectral and temporal cues in which listeners relied more heavily on the temporal cues for “loss-laws” identification when spectral cues were degraded. Furthermore, the addition of low-frequency fine-structure cues in simulated bimodal hearing increased the perceptual saliency of the F1 cue for “loss-laws” identification compared with vocoded speech. Findings suggest an interplay between the quality of sensory input and cue importance.
Rights Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Trends in Hearing, v. 20, p. 1-15
Kong,Y., Winn, M. B., Poellmann, K. & Donaldson, G. S., Discriminability and Perceptual Saliency of Temporal and Spectral Cues for Final Fricative Consonant Voicing in Simulated Cochlear-Implant and Bimodal Hearing. Trends in Hearing, (20) 1-15. © The Authors 2015. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.
The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1177/2331216516652145.
Scholar Commons Citation
Kong, Ying-Yee; Winn, Matthew B.; Poelmann, Katja; and Donaldson, Gail S., "Discriminability and Perceptual Saliency of Temporal and Spectral Cues for Final Fricative Consonant Voicing in Simulated Cochlear-Implant and Bimodal Hearing" (2016). Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Publications. 3.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/csd_facpub/3
