Speaking Clearly for the Hard of Hearing I

1985 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A. Picheny ◽  
Nathaniel I. Durlach ◽  
Louis D. Braida
Keyword(s):  
Hard Of Hearing ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Sensorineural Hearing ◽  
Conversational Speech ◽  
Characteristic Analysis ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
First Approximation ◽  
Gain Characteristic

This paper is concerned with variations in the intelligibility of speech produced for hearing-impaired listeners under two conditions. Estimates were made of the magnitude of the intelligibility differences between attempts to speak clearly and attempts to speak conversationally. Five listeners with sensorineural hearing losses were tested on groups of nonsense sentences spoken clearly and conversationally by three male talkers as a function of level and frequency-gain characteristic. The average intelligibility difference between clear and conversational speech averaged across talker was found to be 17 percentage points. To a first approximation, this difference was independent of the listener, level, and frequency-gain characteristic. Analysis of segmental-level errors was only possible for two listeners and indicated that improvements in intelligibility occurred across all phoneme classes.

Speaking Clearly for the Hard of Hearing II

1986 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 434-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Picheny ◽  
N. I. Durlach ◽  
L. D. Braida
Keyword(s):  
Hard Of Hearing ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Speaking Rate ◽  
Stop Consonants ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Conversational Speech ◽  
Clear Speech ◽  
Acoustic Analyses

The first paper of this series (Picheny, Durlach, & Braida, 1985) presented evidence that there are substantial intelligibility differences for hearing-impaired listeners between nonsense sentences spoken in a conversational manner and spoken with the effort to produce clear speech. In this paper, we report the results of acoustic analyses performed on the conversational and clear speech. Among these results are the following. First, speaking rate decreases substantially in clear speech. This decrease is achieved both by inserting pauses between words and by lengthening the durations of individual speech sounds. Second, there are differences between the two speaking modes in the numbers and types of phonological phenomena observed. In conversational speech, vowels are modified or reduced, and word-final stop bursts are often not released. In clear speech, vowels are modified to a lesser extent, and stop bursts, as well as essentially all word-final consonants, are released. Third, the RMS intensities for obstruent sounds, particularly stop consonants, is greater in clear speech than in conversational speech. Finally, changes in the long-term spectrum are small. Thus, speaking clearly cannot be regarded as equivalent to the application of high-frequency emphasis.

Speaking Clearly for the Hard of Hearing III

1989 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 600-603 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Picheny ◽  
N. I. Durlach ◽  
L. D. Braida
Keyword(s):  
Hard Of Hearing ◽  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Speaking Rate ◽  
Conversational Speech ◽  
Clear Speech ◽  
Probe Experiment ◽  
Simple Processing

Previous studies (Picheny, Durlach, & Braida, 1985, 1986) have demonstrated that substantial intelligibility differences exist for hearing-impaired listeners for speech spoken clearly compared to speech spoken conversationally. This paper presents the results of a probe experiment intended to determine the contribution of speaking rate to the intelligibility differences. Clear sentences were processed to have the durational properties of conversational speech, and conversational sentences were processed to have the durational properties of clear speech. Intelligibility testing with hearing-impaired listeners revealed both sets of materials to be degraded after processing. However, the degradation could not be attributable to processing artifacts because reprocessing the materials to restore their original durations produced intelligibility scores close to those observed for the unprocessed materials. We conclude that the simple processing to alter the relative durations of the speech materials was not adequate to assess the contribution of speaking rate to the intelligibility differences; further studies are proposed to address this question.

The impact of hearing loss

ORL ro ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-65
Author(s):  
Mădălina Georgescu ◽  
Violeta Necula ◽  
Sebastian Cozma
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Hard Of Hearing ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Public Health Issue ◽  
Health Politics ◽  
Universal Newborn Hearing Screening ◽  
Newborn Hearing ◽  
Impaired Person ◽  
The Impact

Hearing loss represents a frequently met sensorial handicap, which has a major and complex impact not only on the hearing-impaired person, but also on his family and society. The large number of hard-of-hearing persons justifies the acknowledgement of hearing loss as a public health issue, which oblige to appropriate health politics, to offer each hearing-impaired person health services like those in Europe. These can be obtained through: appropriate legislation for mandatory universal newborn hearing screening; national program for follow-up of hearing-impaired children up to school age; national register of hard-of-hearing persons; smooth access to rehabilitation methods; appropriate number of audiologists, trained for health services at European standards, trained through public programs of education in the field of audiology.  

Vowel Confusions of Hearing-Impaired Listeners under Reverberant and Nonreverberant Conditions

1985 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 126-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna K. Nabelek ◽  
Tomasz R. Letowski
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Sensorineural Hearing ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Error Patterns ◽  
Formant Frequencies ◽  
Test Conditions ◽  
English Vowels

The effects of reverberation on the perception of vowels and diphthongs were evaluated using 10 subjects with moderate sensorineural hearing losses. Stimuli were 15 English vowels and diphthongs, spoken between/b/and/t/and recorded in a carrier sentence. The test was recorded without and with reverberation (T = 1.2 s). Although vowel confusions occurred in both test conditions, the number of vowels and diphthongs affected and the total number of errors made were significantly greater under the reverberant condition. The results indicated that the perception of vowels by hearing-impaired listeners can be influenced substantially by reverberation. Errors for vowels in reverberation seemed to be related to the overestimation of vowel duration and to a tendency to perceive the pitch of the formant frequencies as being higher than in vowels without reverberation. Error patterns were somewhat individualized among subjects.

An investigation into the relationship of foreign language learning motivation and sign language use among Deaf and hard of hearing Hungarians

2013 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edit H. Kontra ◽  
Kata Csizér
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Hard Of Hearing ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Learning Motivation ◽  
Language Learning Motivation ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract The aim of this study is to point out the relationship between foreign language learning motivation and sign language use among hearing impaired Hungarians. In the article we concentrate on two main issues: first, to what extent hearing impaired people are motivated to learn foreign languages in a European context; second, to what extent sign language use in the classroom as well as outside school shapes their level of motivation. The participants in our research were 331 Deaf and hard of hearing people from all over Hungary. The instrument of data collection was a standardized questionnaire. Our results support the notion that sign language use helps foreign language learning. Based on the findings, we can conclude that there is indeed no justification for further neglecting the needs of Deaf and hard of hearing people as foreign language learners and that their claim for equal opportunities in language learning is substantiated.

Review of Recent Research on the Selection of Frequency-Gain Characteristics for Hearing Aids

1980 ◽  
Vol 89 (5_suppl) ◽  
pp. 79-83
Author(s):  
Richard Lippmann
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Aids ◽  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Signal To Noise Ratio ◽  
Hearing Aid ◽  
Linear Amplification ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
Gain Characteristic ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Fitting Hearing Aids ◽  
Selection Of

Following the Harvard master hearing aid study in 1947 there was little research on linear amplification. Recently, however, there have been a number of studies designed to determine the relationship between the frequency-gain characteristic of a hearing aid and speech intelligibility for persons with sensorineural hearing loss. These studies have demonstrated that a frequency-gain characteristic that rises at a rate of 6 dB/octave, as suggested by the Harvard study, is not optimal. They have also demonstrated that high-frequency emphasis of 10–40 dB above 500–1000 Hz is beneficial. Most importantly, they have demonstrated that hearing aids as they are presently being fit do not provide maximum speech intelligibility. Percent word correct scores obtained with the best frequency-gain characteristics tested in various studies have been found to be 9 to 19 percentage points higher than scores obtained with commercial aids owned by subjects. This increase in scores is equivalent to an increase in signal-to-noise ratio of 10 to 20 dB. This is a significant increase which could allow impaired listeners to communicate in many situations where they presently cannot. These results demonstrate the need for further research on linear amplification aimed at developing practical suggestions for fitting hearing aids.

Effect of Age on Prediction of Hearing Loss with the Bivariate-Plotting Procedure

1984 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shlomo Silman ◽  
Carol Ann Silverman ◽  
Theresa Showers ◽  
Stanley A. Gelfand
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Hearing Impairment ◽  
Predictive Accuracy ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Sensorineural Hearing ◽  
Line Segments ◽  
Bivariate Plot ◽  
Accuracy Of Prediction ◽  
Effect Of Age

The effect of age on accuracy of prediction of hearing impairment with the bivariate-plotting procedure was investigated in 72 normal-hearing subjects aged 20–69 years and in 86 sensorineural hearing-impaired subjects aged 20–83 years. The predictive accuracy with the bivariate-plotting procedure improved markedly when the data from subjects over 44 years of age were excluded from the bivariate plot. The predictive accuracy improved further when the construction of the line segments in the traditional bivariate plot was modified.

Limiting Spectral Resolution in Speech for Listeners With Sensorineural Hearing Loss

1999 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 773-784 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher W. Turner ◽  
Siu-Ling Chi ◽  
Sarah Flock
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Sensorineural Hearing Loss ◽  
Spectral Resolution ◽  
Present Experiment ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Sensorineural Hearing ◽  
Frequency Resolution ◽  
Limiting Factor ◽  
Speech Condition

Consonant recognition was measured as a function of the degree of spectral resolution of the speech stimulus in normally hearing listeners and listeners with moderate sensorineural hearing loss. Previous work (Turner, Souza, and Forget, 1995) has shown that listeners with sensorineural hearing loss could recognize consonants as well as listeners with normal hearing when speech was processed to have only one channel of spectral resolution. The hypothesis tested in the present experiment was that when speech was limited to a small number of spectral channels, both normally hearing and hearing-impaired listeners would continue to perform similarly. As the stimuli were presented with finer degrees of spectral resolution, and the poorer-than-normal spectral resolving abilities of the hearing-impaired listeners became a limiting factor, one would predict that the performance of the hearing-impaired listeners would then become poorer than the normally hearing listeners. Previous research on the frequency-resolution abilities of listeners with mild-to-moderate hearing loss suggests that these listeners have critical bandwidths three to four times larger than do listeners with normal hearing. In the present experiment, speech stimuli were processed to have 1, 2, 4, or 8 channels of spectral information. Results for the 1-channel speech condition were consistent with the previous study in that both groups of listeners performed similarly. However, the hearing-impaired listeners performed more poorly than the normally hearing listeners for all other conditions, including the 2-channel speech condition. These results would appear to contradict the original hypothesis, in that listeners with moderate sensorineural hearing loss would be expected to have at least 2 channels of frequency resolution. One possibility is that the frequency resolution of hearing-impaired listeners may be much poorer than previously estimated; however, a subsequent filtered speech experiment did not support this explanation. The present results do indicate that although listeners with hearing loss are able to use the temporal-envelope information of a single channel in a normal fashion, when given the opportunity to combine information across more than one channel, they show deficient performance.

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