scholarly journals Effects of Noise and a Speaker's Impaired Voice Quality on Spoken Language Processing in School-Aged Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
Isabel S. Schiller ◽  
Angélique Remacle ◽  
Nancy Durieux ◽  
Dominique Morsomme
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Signal To Noise Ratio ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Voice Quality ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Spoken Language Processing ◽  
The Impact

Purpose: Background noise and voice problems among teachers can degrade listening conditions in classrooms. The aim of this literature review is to understand how these acoustic degradations affect spoken language processing in 6- to 18-year-old children. Method: In a narrative report and meta-analysis, we systematically review studies that examined the effects of noise and/or impaired voice on children's response accuracy and response time (RT) in listening tasks. We propose the Speech Processing under Acoustic DEgradations (SPADE) framework to classify relevant findings according to three processing dimensions—speech perception, listening comprehension, and auditory working memory—and highlight potential moderators. Results: Thirty-one studies are included in this systematic review. Our meta-analysis shows that noise can impede children's accuracy in listening tasks across all processing dimensions (Cohen's d between −0.67 and −2.65, depending on signal-to-noise ratio) and that impaired voice lowers children's accuracy in listening comprehension tasks ( d = −0.35). A handful of studies assessed RT, but results are inconclusive. The impact of noise and impaired voice can be moderated by listener, task, environmental, and exposure factors. The interaction between noise and impaired voice remains underinvestigated. Conclusions: Overall, this review suggests that children have more trouble perceiving speech, processing verbal messages, and recalling verbal information when listening to speech in noise or to a speaker with dysphonia. Impoverished speech input could impede pupils' motivation and academic performance at school. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.17139377

scholarly journals Noise and a Speaker's Impaired Voice Quality Disrupt Spoken Language Processing in School-Aged Children: Evidence From Performance and Response Time Measures

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (7) ◽  
pp. 2115-2131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel S. Schiller ◽  
Dominique Morsomme ◽  
Malte Kob ◽  
Angélique Remacle
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Response Time ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Voice Quality ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Perception Task ◽  
Spoken Language Processing ◽  
School Aged Children

Purpose Our aim was to investigate isolated and combined effects of speech-shaped noise (SSN) and a speaker's impaired voice quality on spoken language processing in first-grade children. Method In individual examinations, 53 typically developing children aged 5–6 years performed a speech perception task (phoneme discrimination) and a listening comprehension task (sentence–picture matching). Speech stimuli were randomly presented in a 2 × 2 factorial design with the factors noise (no added noise vs. SSN at 0- dB SNR) and voice quality (normal voice vs. impaired voice). Outcome measures were task performance and response time (RT). Results SSN and impaired voice quality significantly lowered children's performance and increased RTs in the speech perception task, particularly when combined. Regarding listening comprehension, a significant interaction between noise and voice quality indicated that children's performance was hindered by SSN when the speaker's voice was impaired but not when it was normal. RTs in this task were unaffected by noise or voice quality. Conclusions Results suggest that speech signal degradations caused by a speaker's impaired voice and background noise generate more processing errors and increased listening effort in young school-aged children. This finding is vital for classroom listening and highlights the importance of ensuring teachers' vocal health and adequate room acoustics.

scholarly journals Do Musicians and Non-musicians Differ in Speech-on-Speech Processing?

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elif Canseza Kaplan ◽  
Anita E. Wagner ◽  
Paolo Toffanin ◽  
Deniz Başkent
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Recall Task ◽  
Spoken Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Recall ◽  
Gaze Fixations

Earlier studies have shown that musically trained individuals may have a benefit in adverse listening situations when compared to non-musicians, especially in speech-on-speech perception. However, the literature provides mostly conflicting results. In the current study, by employing different measures of spoken language processing, we aimed to test whether we could capture potential differences between musicians and non-musicians in speech-on-speech processing. We used an offline measure of speech perception (sentence recall task), which reveals a post-task response, and online measures of real time spoken language processing: gaze-tracking and pupillometry. We used stimuli of comparable complexity across both paradigms and tested the same groups of participants. In the sentence recall task, musicians recalled more words correctly than non-musicians. In the eye-tracking experiment, both groups showed reduced fixations to the target and competitor words’ images as the level of speech maskers increased. The time course of gaze fixations to the competitor did not differ between groups in the speech-in-quiet condition, while the time course dynamics did differ between groups as the two-talker masker was added to the target signal. As the level of two-talker masker increased, musicians showed reduced lexical competition as indicated by the gaze fixations to the competitor. The pupil dilation data showed differences mainly in one target-to-masker ratio. This does not allow to draw conclusions regarding potential differences in the use of cognitive resources between groups. Overall, the eye-tracking measure enabled us to observe that musicians may be using a different strategy than non-musicians to attain spoken word recognition as the noise level increased. However, further investigation with more fine-grained alignment between the processes captured by online and offline measures is necessary to establish whether musicians differ due to better cognitive control or sound processing.

Multimodal input in second-language speech processing

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Debra M. Hardison
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Spoken Language Processing

This timeline provides an update on research since 2009 involving auditory-visual (AV) input in spoken language processing (see Hardison, 2010 for an earlier timeline on this topic). A brief background is presented here as a foundation for the more recent studies of speech as a multimodal phenomenon (e.g., Rosenblum, 2005).

Does Nasal Surgery Affect Voice Outcomes? A Systematic Review with Meta-Analyses

2020 ◽  
Vol 129 (12) ◽  
pp. 1174-1185
Author(s):  
Christopher C Xiao ◽  
Friederike S. Luetzenberg ◽  
Nancy Jiang ◽  
Jonathan Liang
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
English Language ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Voice Quality ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Sinus Surgery ◽  
Nasal Surgery ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
The Impact

Objectives: Changes in airflow dynamics after nasal surgery may have implications on voice quality. Multiple studies have evaluated the impact of nasal surgery on voice using heterogeneous outcome measures. We aim to systematically review the impact of nasal surgery on voice quality. Methods: Our study design was a systematic review with meta-analyses. A literature search of PubMed, Ovid, Cochrane from 1997 to 2017 was performed. Inclusion criteria included English language studies containing original data on nasal surgery and voice. Two investigators independently reviewed all manuscripts and performed a comprehensive quality assessment. Meta-analysis was completed on quantitative voice measurements. Results: Of 463 identified, 19 studies with 692 patients fulfilled eligibility. Nasal surgeries performed included endoscopic sinus surgery (11/20), septoplasty (11/20), rhinoplasty (2/20), and turbinate reduction (2/20). Voice outcomes measured included nasalance (8/20), fundamental frequency (11/20), jitter (10/20), shimmer (10/20), harmonic to noise ratio (HRN) (8/20), formants (5/20), and voice handicap index (VHI) (4/20). Voice examinations were assessed preoperatively and 1 to 30 months postoperatively. Meta-analysis revealed statistically significant changes in nasalance, ( P < .01) 1 month postoperatively; there was no significant difference in nasalance at 6 months postoperatively. All other variables analyzed revealed no statistically significant differences. Five of nine studies showed majority of patients did not notice subjective change in voice after surgery, but with high heterogeneity of measurements. Conclusions: There may be a short-term increase in nasalance that resolves at longer follow-up, but there seem to be no other objective changes in voice. There may be subjective changes after surgery, but require further study to evaluate.

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