1995 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
The relation between basic hearing abilities in sound information processing and speech reception of hearing-impaired listeners.
| Project/Area Number |
06671722
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
Otorhinolaryngology
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| Research Institution | Kyushu Institute of Design |
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Principal Investigator |
TSUMURA Takashi Kyushu Institute of Design, Faculty of Design, Professor, 芸術工学部, 教授 (20038962)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1994 – 1995
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| Keywords | Hearing Impairment / Frequency Resolution / Temporal Resolution / Loudness Function / Articulation Score / Simulation of Hearing Impairment |
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| Research Abstract |
Frequency resolution, temporal resolution and loudness function as the basic hearing characteristics were measured for some hearing-impaired listeners (IMs) with mild to moderate hearing loss as well as for normal listeners (NMs) . All IMs suffer deterioration in their hearing characteristics.
Articulation score and confusion of consonants in VCV syllables were collected for some silent intervals between a preceding vowel and following consonants. Articulation scores of stop consonants of/d/and/t/obtained by a IM showed low value at the short silent interval, while the scores progressively improved as the silent interval increased. Gap detection threshold as a temporal resolution for this IM was about twice higher than that for NMs. It is suggested that his lower performance in consonant identification may come from lower temporal resolution, that is, the effective duration of forward masking of preceding vowel toward consonant is longer for the IM than for NMs.
Next, another IM particip
… More
ated in articulation test of VCV syllables at some sound levels. His loudness function was simulated to NMs, then articulation scores obtained by the IM and those by NMs through simulated hearing impairment were compared. The results of simulated hearing-impairment showed that the deterioration in articulation scores as lowering sound level for the IM reappeared in the simulation paradigm.
Further, adding his temporal resolution (temporal transfer function) and frequency resolution (auditory filter characteristics) to the characteristics to be simulated, articulation tests for NMs were done under the simulated conditions with various combination among IM's three hearing characteristics. Comparison between IM and NMs (simulated hearing impairment) was made as for articulation score of consonants and for information transfer rate of consonantal distinctive features. The speech reception ability of IM reappeared best in the performance obtained by NMs (simulated hearing impairment) when three all hearing characteristics of IM were combined. It is supposed that temporal resolution of this IM may not affect his speech reception. Less
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