The purpose of this study is to better understand the sensitivity of listeners to the fast changes in frequency or amplitude of sounds that occur in speech. The investigators are studying ways to manipulate these aspects of sounds in an effort to make speech sounds more clear.
The investigators will test listeners with normal hearing or with mild or moderate hearing loss. Tests will first focus on sensitivity to changes in fast changes in amplitude (loudness) or frequency (pitch) in sounds. Then the investigators will test the intelligibility of synthetic vowels and syllables in which these "chirps" are manipulated. Finally, the investigators will test intelligibility of words in noise while manipulating sounds in an effort to improve clarity.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
67
Signal processing will be used to manipulate frequency and amplitude fluctuations in complex sounds.
University of Rochester
Rochester, New York, United States
Pure-tone Average Thresholds
Hearing thresholds, average across test frequencies from 250 to 4000 Hz and averaged across the two ears.
Time frame: 6 months
F1 Discrimination Threshold
Discrimination threshold for changes in F1, the low-frequency formant (spectral peak) in the synthetic vowel sounds.
Time frame: 6 months
F2 Discrimination Threshold
Discrimination thresholds in % frequency for F2, the higher-frequency peak in synthetic vowel stimuli.
Time frame: 6 month
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