Effects of Within-Talker Variability on Speech Intelligibility in Mandarin-Speaking Adult and Pediatric Cochlear Implant Patients
Cochlear implant (CI) speech performance is typically evaluated using well-enunciated speech produced at a normal rate by a single talker. CI users often have greater difficulty with variations in speech production encountered in everyday listening. Within a single talker, speaking rate, amplitude,...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publishing
2016-06-01
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| Series: | Trends in Hearing |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/2331216516654022 |
| _version_ | 1818042983347388416 |
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| author | Qiaotong Su John J. Galvin Guoping Zhang Yongxin Li Qian-Jie Fu |
| author_facet | Qiaotong Su John J. Galvin Guoping Zhang Yongxin Li Qian-Jie Fu |
| author_sort | Qiaotong Su |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Cochlear implant (CI) speech performance is typically evaluated using well-enunciated speech produced at a normal rate by a single talker. CI users often have greater difficulty with variations in speech production encountered in everyday listening. Within a single talker, speaking rate, amplitude, duration, and voice pitch information may be quite variable, depending on the production context. The coarse spectral resolution afforded by the CI limits perception of voice pitch, which is an important cue for speech prosody and for tonal languages such as Mandarin Chinese. In this study, sentence recognition from the Mandarin speech perception database was measured in adult and pediatric Mandarin-speaking CI listeners for a variety of speaking styles: voiced speech produced at slow, normal, and fast speaking rates; whispered speech; voiced emotional speech; and voiced shouted speech. Recognition of Mandarin Hearing in Noise Test sentences was also measured. Results showed that performance was significantly poorer with whispered speech relative to the other speaking styles and that performance was significantly better with slow speech than with fast or emotional speech. Results also showed that adult and pediatric performance was significantly poorer with Mandarin Hearing in Noise Test than with Mandarin speech perception sentences at the normal rate. The results suggest that adult and pediatric Mandarin-speaking CI patients are highly susceptible to whispered speech, due to the lack of lexically important voice pitch cues and perhaps other qualities associated with whispered speech. The results also suggest that test materials may contribute to differences in performance observed between adult and pediatric CI users. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T08:54:59Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-72b2ceb3cc1a4f7c9b5b9224a2f253fa |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2331-2165 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T08:54:59Z |
| publishDate | 2016-06-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Trends in Hearing |
| spelling | doaj.art-72b2ceb3cc1a4f7c9b5b9224a2f253fa2022-12-22T01:55:27ZengSAGE PublishingTrends in Hearing2331-21652016-06-012010.1177/233121651665402210.1177_2331216516654022Effects of Within-Talker Variability on Speech Intelligibility in Mandarin-Speaking Adult and Pediatric Cochlear Implant PatientsQiaotong Su0John J. Galvin1Guoping Zhang2Yongxin Li3Qian-Jie Fu4Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Beijing TongRen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Ministry of Education of China, Beijing, People’s Republic of ChinaDepartment of Head and Neck Surgery, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USADepartment of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Beijing TongRen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Ministry of Education of China, Beijing, People’s Republic of ChinaDepartment of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Beijing TongRen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Ministry of Education of China, Beijing, People’s Republic of ChinaDepartment of Head and Neck Surgery, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USACochlear implant (CI) speech performance is typically evaluated using well-enunciated speech produced at a normal rate by a single talker. CI users often have greater difficulty with variations in speech production encountered in everyday listening. Within a single talker, speaking rate, amplitude, duration, and voice pitch information may be quite variable, depending on the production context. The coarse spectral resolution afforded by the CI limits perception of voice pitch, which is an important cue for speech prosody and for tonal languages such as Mandarin Chinese. In this study, sentence recognition from the Mandarin speech perception database was measured in adult and pediatric Mandarin-speaking CI listeners for a variety of speaking styles: voiced speech produced at slow, normal, and fast speaking rates; whispered speech; voiced emotional speech; and voiced shouted speech. Recognition of Mandarin Hearing in Noise Test sentences was also measured. Results showed that performance was significantly poorer with whispered speech relative to the other speaking styles and that performance was significantly better with slow speech than with fast or emotional speech. Results also showed that adult and pediatric performance was significantly poorer with Mandarin Hearing in Noise Test than with Mandarin speech perception sentences at the normal rate. The results suggest that adult and pediatric Mandarin-speaking CI patients are highly susceptible to whispered speech, due to the lack of lexically important voice pitch cues and perhaps other qualities associated with whispered speech. The results also suggest that test materials may contribute to differences in performance observed between adult and pediatric CI users.https://doi.org/10.1177/2331216516654022 |
| spellingShingle | Qiaotong Su John J. Galvin Guoping Zhang Yongxin Li Qian-Jie Fu Effects of Within-Talker Variability on Speech Intelligibility in Mandarin-Speaking Adult and Pediatric Cochlear Implant Patients Trends in Hearing |
| title | Effects of Within-Talker Variability on Speech Intelligibility in Mandarin-Speaking Adult and Pediatric Cochlear Implant Patients |
| title_full | Effects of Within-Talker Variability on Speech Intelligibility in Mandarin-Speaking Adult and Pediatric Cochlear Implant Patients |
| title_fullStr | Effects of Within-Talker Variability on Speech Intelligibility in Mandarin-Speaking Adult and Pediatric Cochlear Implant Patients |
| title_full_unstemmed | Effects of Within-Talker Variability on Speech Intelligibility in Mandarin-Speaking Adult and Pediatric Cochlear Implant Patients |
| title_short | Effects of Within-Talker Variability on Speech Intelligibility in Mandarin-Speaking Adult and Pediatric Cochlear Implant Patients |
| title_sort | effects of within talker variability on speech intelligibility in mandarin speaking adult and pediatric cochlear implant patients |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/2331216516654022 |
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