The effect of F0 contour on the intelligibility of speech in the presence of interfering sounds for Mandarin Chinese

2018 ◽  
Vol 143 (2) ◽  
pp. 864-877 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Chen ◽  
Hongying Yang ◽  
Xihong Wu ◽  
Brian C. J. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
F0 Contour

Aging Effect on Categorical Perception of Mandarin Tones 2 and 3 and Thresholds of Pitch Contour Discrimination

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuxia Wang ◽  
Xiaohu Yang ◽  
Hui Zhang ◽  
Lilong Xu ◽  
Can Xu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Categorical Perception ◽  
Aging Effect ◽  
Pitch Contour ◽  
Tone Perception ◽  
F0 Contour ◽  
Identification Function ◽  
Tone Discrimination ◽  
Mandarin Tones ◽  
Mandarin Tone

Purpose The purpose of the study was to examine the aging effect on the categorical perception of Mandarin Chinese Tone 2 (rising F0 pitch contour) and Tone 3 (falling-then-rising F0 pitch contour) as well as on the thresholds of pitch contour discrimination. Method Three experiments of Mandarin tone perception were conducted for younger and older listeners with Mandarin Chinese as the native language. The first 2 experiments were in the categorical perception paradigm: tone identification and tone discrimination for a series of stimuli, the F0 contour of which systematically varied from Tone 2 to Tone 3. In the third experiment, the just-noticeable differences of pitch contour discrimination were measured for both groups. Results In the measures of categorical perception, older listeners showed significantly shallower slopes in the tone identification function and significantly smaller peakedness in the tone discrimination function compared with younger listeners. Moreover, the thresholds of pitch contour discrimination were significantly higher for older listeners than for younger listeners. Conclusion These results suggest that aging reduced the categoricality of Mandarin tone perception and worsened the psychoacoustic capacity to discriminate pitch contour changes, thereby possibly leading to older listeners' difficulty in identifying Tones 2 and 3.

Categorical Perception of Mandarin Chinese Tones 1–2 and Tones 1–4: Effects of Aging and Signal Duration

2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (12) ◽  
pp. 3667-3677 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuxia Wang ◽  
Xiaohu Yang ◽  
Chang Liu
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Categorical Perception ◽  
Aging Effect ◽  
Signal Duration ◽  
F0 Contour ◽  
Identification Function ◽  
Effects Of Aging ◽  
Tone Discrimination ◽  
Mandarin Tone ◽  
Mandarin Chinese Tones

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the aging effect on the categorical perception of Mandarin Chinese tones with varied fundamental frequency (F0) contours and signal duration. Method Both younger and older native Chinese listeners with normal hearing were recruited in 2 experiments: tone identification and tone discrimination on a series of stimuli with the F0 contour systematically varying from the flat tone to the rising–falling tones. Apart from F0 contour, tone duration was manipulated at 3 levels: 100, 200, and 400 ms. Results Results suggested that, compared with younger listeners, older listeners performed with shallower slope in the identification function and smaller peakedness in the discrimination function, particularly for Tones 1 and 2, whereas for Tones 1 and 4, comparable categorical perception was found between younger and older listeners. Conclusions The current study suggested that longer duration facilitated categorical perception in the flat–rising tones for the older listeners. Such an aging effect was not found with the flat–falling tones, suggesting that the aging-related deficit in categorical perception might relate to different tone types. Aging resulted in less categoricality of Mandarin tone perception for the flat–rising tones with short duration like 100 ms, possibly due to the aging-related decline in temporal processing.

Effects of Fundamental Frequency Contours on Sentence Recognition in Mandarin-Speaking Children With Cochlear Implants

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (11) ◽  
pp. 3855-3864
Author(s):  
Wanting Huang ◽  
Lena L. N. Wong ◽  
Fei Chen ◽  
Haihong Liu ◽  
Wei Liang
Keyword(s):  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
Signal To Noise Ratio ◽  
Lexical Tone ◽  
Signal To Noise ◽  
Sentence Recognition ◽  
Test Conditions ◽  
Age Appropriate ◽  
F0 Contour ◽  
Appropriate Sentences

Purpose Fundamental frequency (F0) is the primary acoustic cue for lexical tone perception in tonal languages but is processed in a limited way in cochlear implant (CI) systems. The aim of this study was to evaluate the importance of F0 contours in sentence recognition in Mandarin-speaking children with CIs and find out whether it is similar to/different from that in age-matched normal-hearing (NH) peers. Method Age-appropriate sentences, with F0 contours manipulated to be either natural or flattened, were randomly presented to preschool children with CIs and their age-matched peers with NH under three test conditions: in quiet, in white noise, and with competing sentences at 0 dB signal-to-noise ratio. Results The neutralization of F0 contours resulted in a significant reduction in sentence recognition. While this was seen only in noise conditions among NH children, it was observed throughout all test conditions among children with CIs. Moreover, the F0 contour-induced accuracy reduction ratios (i.e., the reduction in sentence recognition resulting from the neutralization of F0 contours compared to the normal F0 condition) were significantly greater in children with CIs than in NH children in all test conditions. Conclusions F0 contours play a major role in sentence recognition in both quiet and noise among pediatric implantees, and the contribution of the F0 contour is even more salient than that in age-matched NH children. These results also suggest that there may be differences between children with CIs and NH children in how F0 contours are processed.

Phonological Syllables Control Segmental Encoding in Mandarin Chinese

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chen Jenn-Yeu ◽  
Padraig G. O'seaghdha ◽  
Kuan-Hung Liu
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese

Word Preparation Addresses Syllables but Not Segments in Mandarin Chinese

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenn-Yeu Chen ◽  
Padraig G. O'Seaghdha ◽  
Kuan-Hung Liu
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese
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