scholarly journals The effect of F0 contour on the intelligibility of Mandarin Chinese for hearing-impaired listeners

2019 ◽  
Vol 146 (2) ◽  
pp. EL85-EL91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yadong Niu ◽  
Fei Chen ◽  
Jing Chen
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
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.

Contributions of the Fundamental, Resolved Harmonics, and Unresolved Harmonics in Tone-Phoneme Identification

1992 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 1406-1409 ◽  
Author(s):  
James R. Stagray ◽  
David Downs ◽  
Ronald K. Sommers
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Lower Intensity ◽  
Higher Harmonics ◽  
Tone Language ◽  
Phoneme Identification

Researchers describe Mandarin Chinese tone phonemes by their fundamental frequency (Fo) contours. However, tone phonemes are also comprised of higher harmonics that also may cue tone phonemes. We measured identification thresholds of acoustically filtered tone phonemes and found that higher harmonics, including resolved harmonics above the Fo and unresolved harmonics, cued tone phonemes. Resolved harmonics cued tone phonemes at lower intensity levels suggesting they are more practical tone-phoneme cues in everyday speech. The clear implication is that researchers should use the Fo only as a benchmark when describing tone-phoneme contours, recognizing that higher harmonics also cue tone phonemes. These results also help explain why tone-language speakers can identify tone phonemes over a telephone that attenuates selective frequencies, and suggests that hearing-impaired tone-language speakers may still identify tone phonemes when their hearing loss attenuates selective frequencies.

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

Teacher Identification of Elementary School Children with Hearing Loss

1978 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard H. Nodar
Keyword(s):  
Elementary School ◽  
Hearing Loss ◽  
School Children ◽  
Elementary School Children ◽  
Total Sample ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Teacher Interviews ◽  
Teacher Screening ◽  
Children With Hearing Loss ◽  
Hearing Problems

The teachers of 2231 elementary school children were asked to identify those with known or suspected hearing problems. Following screening, the data were compared. Teachers identified 5% of the children as hearing-impaired, while screening identified only 3%. There was agreement between the two procedures on 1%. Subsequent to the teacher interviews, rescreening and tympanometry were conducted. These procedures indicated that teacher screening and tympanometry were in agreement on 2% of the total sample or 50% of the hearing-loss group. It was concluded that teachers could supplement audiometry, particularly when otoscopy and typanometry are not available.

Systematic Modification of Parental Input to Train Language Symbols

1981 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Culatta ◽  
Donna Horn
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Meaningful Use ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Parental Input ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
Therapy Sessions ◽  
Impaired Children ◽  
Hearing Impaired Children ◽  
At Home

This study attempted to maximize environmental language learning for four hearing-impaired children. The children's mothers were systematically trained to present specific language symbols to their children at home. An increase in meaningful use of these words was observed during therapy sessions. In addition, as the mothers began to generalize the language exposure strategies, an increase was observed in the children's use of words not specifically identified by the clinician as targets.

Equivalent Noise Dose Obtained Through Hearing Aids in the Classrooms of Hearing-Impaired Children

1990 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 147-150
Author(s):  
Ronald A. Wilde
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Aids ◽  
High Gain ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
Impaired Children ◽  
Very High ◽  
Hearing Impaired Children

A commercial noise dose meter was used to estimate the equivalent noise dose received through high-gain hearing aids worn in a school for deaf children. There were no significant differences among nominal SSPL settings and all SSPL settings produced very high equivalent noise doses, although these are within the parameters of previous projections.

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