Acoustic Dimensions of Hearing-Impaired Speakers' Intelligibility

1985 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 345-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale Evan Metz ◽  
Vincent J. Samar ◽  
Nicholas Schiavetti ◽  
Ronald W. Sitler ◽  
Robert L. Whitehead
Keyword(s):  
Principal Components ◽  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Spatial Differentiation ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Prosodic Features ◽  
Hearing Ability ◽  
Two Factors

Regression and principal components analyses were employed to study the relationship between three measures of speech intelligibility and 12 segmental, prosodic, and hearing ability parameters in 20 severely to profoundly hearing-impaired speakers. Regression analyses on the original 12 parameters revealed that cognate pair voice onset time differences and mean sentence duration strongly predicted speech intelligibility based on readings of isolated word and contextual speech material. A principal components analysis derived four factors that accounted for the majority of the variance in the original 12 parameters. Subsequent regression analyses using the four factors as predictor variables revealed two factors with strong relationships to the speech intelligibility measures. One factor primarily reflected segmental production processes related to the temporal and spatial differentiation of phonemes, whereas the other factor reflected prosodic features and production stability. These results are consistent with prior research that suggests independent primary and secondary roles for segmental and prosodic speech characteristics, respectively, in determining intelligibility in severely to profoundly hearing-impaired speakers.

Acoustic Dimensions of Hearing-Impaired Speakers’ Intelligibility

1990 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 476-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale Evan Metz ◽  
Vincent J. Samar ◽  
Nicholas Schiavetti ◽  
Ronald W. Sitler
Keyword(s):  
Principal Components ◽  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Spatial Differentiation ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Production Processes ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Components Analysis ◽  
Temporal And Spatial ◽  
Predictive Relationships ◽  
The Relationship

Regression and principal components analyses were employed to study the relationship between 28 segmental and suprasegmental acoustic parameters of speech production and measures of speech intelligibility for 40 severely to profoundly hearing-impaired persons in an effort to extend the findings of Metz, Samar, Schiavetti, Sitler, and Whitehead (1985). The principal components analysis derived six factors that accounted for 59% of the variance in the original 28 parameters. Consistent with the findings of Metz et al., a subsequent regression analysis using these six factors as predictor variables revealed two factors with strong predictive relationships to speech intelligibility. One factor primarily reflected segmental production processes related to the temporal and spatial differentiation of phonemes, whereas the other primarily reflected suprasegmental production processes associated with contrastive stress. However, the predictive capability of the present factor structure was somewhat reduced relative to the findings of Metz et al. (1985). Data presented indicate that the populations sampled in the two studies may have differed on one or more dimensions of subject characteristics. Considered collectively, the present findings and the findings of Metz et al. support the tractability of employing selected acoustic variables for the estimation of speech intelligibility.

Toward Measuring How Well Hearing-Impaired Children Speak

1978 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randall B. Monsen
Keyword(s):  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Pure Tone ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Multiple Correlation ◽  
Vowel Production ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Second Formant ◽  
Impaired Children

Average intelligibility scores for a group of 37 hearing-impaired and two normally hearing adolescents were determined by 50 normal listeners and were compared with nine acoustically measured speech variables. These nine variables included measurements of consonant production, vowel production, and prosody. Regression analysis of the variables showed that three of the speech variables bore a multiple correlation of 0.85 with measured intelligibility scores. Two variables alone, the mean voice-onset-time difference between /t/ and /d/ and the mean second-formant difference between /i/ and /ɔ/, accounted for about 70% of the variance in the intelligibility scores. To cross-validate the reliability of these correlations, intelligibility scores were subsequently predicted for another group of 30 hearing-impaired adolescents and then compared with intelligibility scores as determined by another group of normal listeners. For this second group, the correlation between measured intelligibility scores and predicted scores was 0.86, which indicates that the reliability of the predicting variables is high. Five of the nine variables correlated more highly with measured speech intelligibility than did pure-tone audiometric thresholds. The average speech intelligibility of all 67 hearing-impaired subjects was 76%.

Voice onset time contrasts in the speech of profoundly hearing impaired children

1994 ◽  
Vol 95 (5) ◽  
pp. 3012-3012
Author(s):  
Marios Fourakis ◽  
Ann E. Geers ◽  
Emily A. Tobey
Keyword(s):  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Impaired Children ◽  
Hearing Impaired Children

Acoustic Integrity of Speech Production in Children With Moderate and Severe Hearing Impairment

1992 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Ryalls ◽  
Annie Larouche
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Impairment ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Total Duration ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Formant Frequencies ◽  
Standard Deviations

Ten normally hearing and 10 age-matched subjects with moderate-to-severe hearing impairment were recorded producing a protocol of 18 basic syllables [/pi/,/pa/,/pu/; /bi/,/ba/,/bu/; /ti/,/ta/,/tu/; /di/,/da/,/du/; /ki/,/ka/,/ku/; /gi/,/ga/,/gu/] repeated five times. The resulting 90 syllables were digitized and measured for (a) total duration; (b) voice-onset time (VOT) of the initial consonant; (c) fundamental frequency (F 0 ) at midpoint of vowel; and (d) formant frequencies (F 1 , F 2 , F 3 ), also measured at midpoint of vowel. Statistical comparisons were conducted on (a) average values for each syllable, and (b) standard deviations. Although there were numerical differences between normally hearing and hearing-impaired groups, few differences were statistically significant.

Minimal Hearing Loss: Implications and Management Options for Educational Settings

2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 40-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia McCormick Richburg ◽  
Annah L. Hill
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Signal To Noise Ratio ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
Formant Frequency ◽  
Management Options ◽  
Auditory Systems ◽  
The Impact

Audibility, which refers to the ability of sound to be heard, is not sufficient for listening and learning environments, such as school classrooms. Speech intelligibility, not audibility, is the key to understanding and, therefore, must be addressed for all children, especially those who have some amount of hearing loss. It is well documented that children's central auditory systems are not fully myelinated or mature until the age of 10 to 12 years (Moore, 2002; Musiek, Gollegly, & Baran, 1984). School-age children have “developing” auditory systems due to their poorer sensitivity (when compared to adults) to small acoustic cues in speech, such as voice-onset time and formant-frequency transition (Elliott, 1986; Elliott, Longinotti, Meyer, Raz, & Zucker, 1981). Children are also less able to selectively attend to auditory tasks, have difficulty recognizing speech distorted by reverberation, and have problems with speech intelligibility in background noise and reverberation plus noise (Finitzo-Hieber & Tillman, 1978; Neuman & Hochberg, 1983; Stuart, 2005). Therefore, children under the age of 13 years (i.e., those in elementary and middle school) have been described as “special listeners” (Nabelek & Nabelek, 1994). This article describes minimal hearing loss (MHL), the poor acoustics found in educational environments, and the impact of those acoustics on children with MHL. In addition, this article reviews environmental modifications that can be made to improve classroom acoustics. This article offers multiple researchers' strategies for better access to listening and learning, including soundfield amplification options for improving the signal-to-noise ratio in classroom settings.

LEXICAL FACTORS AND SEGMENTAL ACCURACY IN SECOND LANGUAGE SPEECH PRODUCTION

1998 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
James E. Flege ◽  
Elaina M. Frieda ◽  
Amanda C. Walley ◽  
Lauren A. Randazza
Keyword(s):  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Lexical Status ◽  
Spanish Word ◽  
Second Language Speech Production ◽  
Learning English ◽  
Lexical Factors

Voice onset time (VOT) was measured in the production of /t/ in the initial position of 60 English words spoken by native English (NE) speakers and native Spanish (NS) speakers who began learning English before or after the age of 21 years. The subjects rated the words for familiarity, age of acquisition, imageability, and relatedness to word(s) in the Spanish lexicon. The subjects in all three groups showed two well-known phonetic effects: They produced longer VOT values in the context of high than nonhigh vowels, and longer VOT in one- than in two-syllable words. As expected, the NS subjects who learned English prior to the age of 21 years judged the English words to be more familiar and more like a Spanish word than did the subjects who began learning English later in life. Also, many but not all of the NS subjects produced /t/ with shorter VOT values than did the NE subjects. However, regression analyses showed that none of the lexical factors mentioned above or the text frequency of the 60 English words examined affected the NS subjects' VOT values. Thus, variation in the accuracy with which NS subjects produce English /t/ must be accounted for by factors other than the lexical status of the words in which /t/ occurs.

Voice Onset Time in the Speech of Hearing-Impaired Individuals

1978 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
H.R. Gilbert ◽  
M.I. Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Hearing Impaired
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