Target-word identification in noise with formant enhancement for hearing-impaired listeners

Abstract

Degraded speech intelligibility in background noise is a common complaint of most listeners with hearing loss. The purpose of the current study is to investigate the effect of spectral enhancement of F2 on target-word identification in noise for the old listeners with hearing loss (HL) and with normal hearing (NH). Target words (e.g., name, color, and digit) were selected and presented based on the paradigm of coordinate response measure (CRM) corpus of English and Chinese versions. Identification tasks with original and F2-enhanced speech in the 2-talker and 6-talker babbles were designed for the two groups (HL and NH). Thresholds of word identification was measured by using adaptive up-down methods. Results showed that listeners with NH had better performance on word identification in noise than listeners with HL in almost all listening conditions. More importantly, thresholds of both groups were improved for enhanced speech signals. Compared with NH group, listeners with HL gained significantly greater benefits in the most challenging condition. These preliminary results suggested that speech sounds with F2 enhancement might improve listeners’ ordinary speech perception in noise.