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Amichetti NM, Atagi E, Kong YY, Wingfield A. Linguistic Context Versus Semantic Competition in Word Recognition by Younger and Older Adults With Cochlear Implants. Ear Hear 2019; 39:101-109. [PMID: 28700448 PMCID: PMC5741484 DOI: 10.1097/aud.0000000000000469] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES The increasing numbers of older adults now receiving cochlear implants raises the question of how the novel signal produced by cochlear implants may interact with cognitive aging in the recognition of words heard spoken within a linguistic context. The objective of this study was to pit the facilitative effects of a constraining linguistic context against a potential age-sensitive negative effect of response competition on effectiveness of word recognition. DESIGN Younger (n = 8; mean age = 22.5 years) and older (n = 8; mean age = 67.5 years) adult implant recipients heard 20 target words as the final words in sentences that manipulated the target word's probability of occurrence within the sentence context. Data from published norms were also used to measure response entropy, calculated as the total number of different responses and the probability distribution of the responses suggested by the sentence context. Sentence-final words were presented to participants using a word-onset gating paradigm, in which a target word was presented with increasing amounts of its onset duration in 50 msec increments until the word was correctly identified. RESULTS Results showed that for both younger and older adult implant users, the amount of word-onset information needed for correct recognition of sentence-final words was inversely proportional to their likelihood of occurrence within the sentence context, with older adults gaining differential advantage from the contextual constraints offered by a sentence context. On the negative side, older adults' word recognition was differentially hampered by high response entropy, with this effect being driven primarily by the number of competing responses that might also fit the sentence context. CONCLUSIONS Consistent with previous research with normal-hearing younger and older adults, the present results showed older adult implant users' recognition of spoken words to be highly sensitive to linguistic context. This sensitivity, however, also resulted in a greater degree of interference from other words that might also be activated by the context, with negative effects on ease of word recognition. These results are consistent with an age-related inhibition deficit extending to the domain of semantic constraints on word recognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicole M. Amichetti
- Volen National Center for Complex Systems, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA
| | - Eriko Atagi
- Volen National Center for Complex Systems, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Ying-Yee Kong
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Arthur Wingfield
- Volen National Center for Complex Systems, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA
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Bologna WJ, Vaden KI, Ahlstrom JB, Dubno JR. Age effects on perceptual organization of speech: Contributions of glimpsing, phonemic restoration, and speech segregation. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2018; 144:267. [PMID: 30075693 PMCID: PMC6047943 DOI: 10.1121/1.5044397] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
In realistic listening environments, speech perception requires grouping together audible fragments of speech, filling in missing information, and segregating the glimpsed target from the background. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which age-related difficulties with these tasks can be explained by declines in glimpsing, phonemic restoration, and/or speech segregation. Younger and older adults with normal hearing listened to sentences interrupted with silence or envelope-modulated noise, presented either in quiet or with a competing talker. Older adults were poorer than younger adults at recognizing keywords based on short glimpses but benefited more when envelope-modulated noise filled silent intervals. Recognition declined with a competing talker but this effect did not interact with age. Results of cognitive tasks indicated that faster processing speed and better visual-linguistic closure were predictive of better speech understanding. Taken together, these results suggest that age-related declines in speech recognition may be partially explained by difficulty grouping short glimpses of speech into a coherent message.
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Affiliation(s)
- William J Bologna
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Medical University of South Carolina, 135 Rutledge Avenue, MSC 550, Charleston, South Carolina 29425, USA
| | - Kenneth I Vaden
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Medical University of South Carolina, 135 Rutledge Avenue, MSC 550, Charleston, South Carolina 29425, USA
| | - Jayne B Ahlstrom
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Medical University of South Carolina, 135 Rutledge Avenue, MSC 550, Charleston, South Carolina 29425, USA
| | - Judy R Dubno
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Medical University of South Carolina, 135 Rutledge Avenue, MSC 550, Charleston, South Carolina 29425, USA
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Bologna WJ, Vaden KI, Ahlstrom JB, Dubno JR. Age effects on perceptual organization of speech: Contributions of glimpsing, phonemic restoration, and speech segregation. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2018; 144:267. [PMID: 30075693 DOI: 10.5041466/1.5044397] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
In realistic listening environments, speech perception requires grouping together audible fragments of speech, filling in missing information, and segregating the glimpsed target from the background. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which age-related difficulties with these tasks can be explained by declines in glimpsing, phonemic restoration, and/or speech segregation. Younger and older adults with normal hearing listened to sentences interrupted with silence or envelope-modulated noise, presented either in quiet or with a competing talker. Older adults were poorer than younger adults at recognizing keywords based on short glimpses but benefited more when envelope-modulated noise filled silent intervals. Recognition declined with a competing talker but this effect did not interact with age. Results of cognitive tasks indicated that faster processing speed and better visual-linguistic closure were predictive of better speech understanding. Taken together, these results suggest that age-related declines in speech recognition may be partially explained by difficulty grouping short glimpses of speech into a coherent message.
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Affiliation(s)
- William J Bologna
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Medical University of South Carolina, 135 Rutledge Avenue, MSC 550, Charleston, South Carolina 29425, USA
| | - Kenneth I Vaden
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Medical University of South Carolina, 135 Rutledge Avenue, MSC 550, Charleston, South Carolina 29425, USA
| | - Jayne B Ahlstrom
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Medical University of South Carolina, 135 Rutledge Avenue, MSC 550, Charleston, South Carolina 29425, USA
| | - Judy R Dubno
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Medical University of South Carolina, 135 Rutledge Avenue, MSC 550, Charleston, South Carolina 29425, USA
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Patro C, Mendel LL. Gated Word Recognition by Postlingually Deafened Adults With Cochlear Implants: Influence of Semantic Context. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2018; 61:145-158. [PMID: 29242894 DOI: 10.1044/2017_jslhr-h-17-0141] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2017] [Accepted: 08/28/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE The main goal of this study was to investigate the minimum amount of sensory information required to recognize spoken words (isolation points [IPs]) in listeners with cochlear implants (CIs) and investigate facilitative effects of semantic contexts on the IPs. METHOD Listeners with CIs as well as those with normal hearing (NH) participated in the study. In Experiment 1, the CI users listened to unprocessed (full-spectrum) stimuli and individuals with NH listened to full-spectrum or vocoder processed speech. IPs were determined for both groups who listened to gated consonant-nucleus-consonant words that were selected based on lexical properties. In Experiment 2, the role of semantic context on IPs was evaluated. Target stimuli were chosen from the Revised Speech Perception in Noise corpus based on the lexical properties of the final words. RESULTS The results indicated that spectrotemporal degradations impacted IPs for gated words adversely, and CI users as well as participants with NH listening to vocoded speech had longer IPs than participants with NH who listened to full-spectrum speech. In addition, there was a clear disadvantage due to lack of semantic context in all groups regardless of the spectral composition of the target speech (full spectrum or vocoded). Finally, we showed that CI users (and users with NH with vocoded speech) can overcome such word processing difficulties with the help of semantic context and perform as well as listeners with NH. CONCLUSION Word recognition occurs even before the entire word is heard because listeners with NH associate an acoustic input with its mental representation to understand speech. The results of this study provide insight into the role of spectral degradation on the processing of spoken words in isolation and the potential benefits of semantic context. These results may also explain why CI users rely substantially on semantic context.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Lisa Lucks Mendel
- School of Communication Sciences & Disorders, University of Memphis, TN
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Meyer S, Larrivee L, Veneziano-Korzec A, Stacy K. Improving Art Museum Accessibility for Adults With Acquired Hearing Loss. Am J Audiol 2017; 26:10-17. [PMID: 28114629 DOI: 10.1044/2016_aja-15-0084] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/24/2015] [Accepted: 10/07/2016] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
PURPOSE Adults with hearing loss rated the accessibility of guided or docent-led art museum tours with and without hearing assistive technology (HAT). METHOD Nineteen individuals (average age 64 years, range 35-87 years) with acquired hearing loss participated. All participants had a bilateral hearing loss (mild to profound) using hearing aids (n = 12), cochlear implants (n = 5), or no technology (n = 2). Two docents who were previously trained to modify their presentations and use clear speech led the tours. Participants experienced a tour with and without the museum's HAT and rated its effectiveness using a rating scale. The study used a pre-post test design. RESULTS The docent-led tours with HAT were rated significantly higher (p = .003) than the tours without HAT. Participants made several suggestions on improving museum accessibility for individuals with hearing loss. CONCLUSIONS The use of HAT during a museum tour was beneficial for individuals with hearing loss. Training docents to modify their presentations, use clear speech, and HAT improved the accessibility of docent-led tours for individuals with hearing loss.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susanna Meyer
- Communication Sciences & Disorders Department, Worcester State University, MA
| | - Linda Larrivee
- Communication Sciences & Disorders Department, Worcester State University, MA
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Shafiro V, Sheft S, Norris M, Spanos G, Radasevich K, Formsma P, Gygi B. Toward a Nonspeech Test of Auditory Cognition: Semantic Context Effects in Environmental Sound Identification in Adults of Varying Age and Hearing Abilities. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0167030. [PMID: 27893791 PMCID: PMC5125666 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0167030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2016] [Accepted: 11/08/2016] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Sounds in everyday environments tend to follow one another as events unfold over time. The tacit knowledge of contextual relationships among environmental sounds can influence their perception. We examined the effect of semantic context on the identification of sequences of environmental sounds by adults of varying age and hearing abilities, with an aim to develop a nonspeech test of auditory cognition. METHOD The familiar environmental sound test (FEST) consisted of 25 individual sounds arranged into ten five-sound sequences: five contextually coherent and five incoherent. After hearing each sequence, listeners identified each sound and arranged them in the presentation order. FEST was administered to young normal-hearing, middle-to-older normal-hearing, and middle-to-older hearing-impaired adults (Experiment 1), and to postlingual cochlear-implant users and young normal-hearing adults tested through vocoder-simulated implants (Experiment 2). RESULTS FEST scores revealed a strong positive effect of semantic context in all listener groups, with young normal-hearing listeners outperforming other groups. FEST scores also correlated with other measures of cognitive ability, and for CI users, with the intelligibility of speech-in-noise. CONCLUSIONS Being sensitive to semantic context effects, FEST can serve as a nonspeech test of auditory cognition for diverse listener populations to assess and potentially improve everyday listening skills.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valeriy Shafiro
- Department of Communication Disorders and Sciences, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois
- * E-mail:
| | - Stanley Sheft
- Department of Communication Disorders and Sciences, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois
| | - Molly Norris
- Department of Communication Disorders and Sciences, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois
| | - George Spanos
- Department of Communication Disorders and Sciences, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois
| | - Katherine Radasevich
- Department of Communication Disorders and Sciences, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois
| | - Paige Formsma
- Department of Communication Disorders and Sciences, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois
| | - Brian Gygi
- Veterans Affairs Northern California Health Care System, Martinez, California
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Moradi S, Lidestam B, Rönnberg J. Comparison of Gated Audiovisual Speech Identification in Elderly Hearing Aid Users and Elderly Normal-Hearing Individuals: Effects of Adding Visual Cues to Auditory Speech Stimuli. Trends Hear 2016; 20:20/0/2331216516653355. [PMID: 27317667 PMCID: PMC5562342 DOI: 10.1177/2331216516653355] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The present study compared elderly hearing aid (EHA) users (n = 20) with elderly normal-hearing (ENH) listeners (n = 20) in terms of isolation points (IPs, the shortest time required for correct identification of a speech stimulus) and accuracy of audiovisual gated speech stimuli (consonants, words, and final words in highly and less predictable sentences) presented in silence. In addition, we compared the IPs of audiovisual speech stimuli from the present study with auditory ones extracted from a previous study, to determine the impact of the addition of visual cues. Both participant groups achieved ceiling levels in terms of accuracy in the audiovisual identification of gated speech stimuli; however, the EHA group needed longer IPs for the audiovisual identification of consonants and words. The benefit of adding visual cues to auditory speech stimuli was more evident in the EHA group, as audiovisual presentation significantly shortened the IPs for consonants, words, and final words in less predictable sentences; in the ENH group, audiovisual presentation only shortened the IPs for consonants and words. In conclusion, although the audiovisual benefit was greater for EHA group, this group had inferior performance compared with the ENH group in terms of IPs when supportive semantic context was lacking. Consequently, EHA users needed the initial part of the audiovisual speech signal to be longer than did their counterparts with normal hearing to reach the same level of accuracy in the absence of a semantic context.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shahram Moradi
- Linnaeus Centre HEAD, Department of Behavioral Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Sweden
| | - Björn Lidestam
- Department of Behavioral Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
| | - Jerker Rönnberg
- Linnaeus Centre HEAD, Department of Behavioral Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Sweden
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Shafiro V, Sheft S, Risley R. The intelligibility of interrupted and temporally altered speech: Effects of context, age, and hearing loss. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2016; 139:455-65. [PMID: 26827039 PMCID: PMC4723407 DOI: 10.1121/1.4939891] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/16/2023]
Abstract
Temporal constraints on the perception of interrupted speech were investigated by comparing the intelligibility of speech that was periodically gated (PG) and subsequently either temporally compressed (PGTC) by concatenating remaining speech fragments or temporally expanded (PGTE) by doubling the silent intervals between speech fragments. Experiment 1 examined the effects of PGTC and PGTE at different gating rates (0.5 -16 Hz) on the intelligibility of words and sentences for young normal-hearing adults. In experiment 2, older normal-hearing (ONH) and older hearing-impaired (OHI) adults were tested with sentences only. The results of experiment 1 indicated that sentences were more intelligible than words. In both experiments, PGTC sentences were less intelligible than either PG or PGTE sentences. Compared with PG sentences, the intelligibility of PGTE sentences was significantly reduced by the same amount for ONH and OHI groups. Temporal alterations tended to produce a U-shaped rate-intelligibility function with a dip at 2-4 Hz, indicating that temporal alterations interacted with the duration of speech fragments. The present findings demonstrate that both aging and hearing loss negatively affect the overall intelligibility of interrupted and temporally altered speech. However, a mild-to-moderate hearing loss did not exacerbate the negative effects of temporal alterations associated with aging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valeriy Shafiro
- Department of Communication Disorders and Sciences, Rush University Medical Center, 600 South Paulina Street, Suite 1012 AAC, Chicago, Illinois 60612, USA
| | - Stanley Sheft
- Department of Communication Disorders and Sciences, Rush University Medical Center, 600 South Paulina Street, Suite 1012 AAC, Chicago, Illinois 60612, USA
| | - Robert Risley
- Department of Communication Disorders and Sciences, Rush University Medical Center, 600 South Paulina Street, Suite 1012 AAC, Chicago, Illinois 60612, USA
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