Masked speech recognition in a single-talker or a single-talker-plus-noise masker in school-age children and adults

Abstract

Previous work has shown that masked speech perception is poorer in younger children than older children and adults, particularly when the masker is composed of speech. The present study tested the hypothesis that young children’s poor performance in speech maskers is due to reduced ability to benefit from transient improvements in the target-to-masker ratio (TMR). Listeners were normal-hearing school-age children (5–15 years) and adults. The target words and masker speech were produced by two different female talkers. Target stimuli were disyllabic words, and the masker was either: (1) speech-only or (2) speech-plus-noise. Both maskers included a continuous 60-dB-SPL stream of speech. The speech-plus-noise masker also included a continuous 50-dB-SPL speech-shaped noise. A four-alternative forced choice task was used, and target level was adapted to estimate threshold. Thresholds were higher for younger children than older children or adults for both masker conditions. While the inclusion of speech-shaped noise increased thresholds for all listeners, it had a smaller detrimental effect on younger children than on older children and adults. This result is consistent with the idea that greater susceptibility to speech-on-speech masking in younger children is related to a reduced ability to benefit from transient improvements in TMR.