Effect of target word position on use of sentence context in acoustic-hearing listeners to spectrally degraded speech

Le résumé fourni par la source

Understanding of degraded speech can be greatly improved by using sentence context cues. While sentence context effects for sentence-final words are well known, relatively little is known about sentence context effects for sentence-initial words. It is possible that subsequent sentence context can be used to improve understanding of a missed initial word. This study measured phoneme classification of a voice-onset time continuum. The target words from the continuum were presented in one of two sentence locations (beginning, end), and the sentence context cued one target word interpretation (based on phoneme classification) or the other. Acoustic-hearing listeners were presented sentences in clear and spectrally degraded (vocoded) conditions. Preliminary results suggest that sentence context effects are greater when the target word is at the beginning rather than the end of the sentence. We hypothesize that listeners may revise their initial acoustics-based interpretation of the degraded target word based on the sentence context when the target word is first in the sentence, but not when it is last. These location-dependent context effects may interact with individual cognitive skills, such as working memory and processing speed. The data supporting this hypothesis and an analysis of contributing factors (e.g., cognitive skills, age) will be presented.

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