The perception of English words with consonant clusters and vowel deletion by young normal-hearing listeners under noise

Abstract

In this study, we investigated whether the misperception rate of English words with consonant cluster and vowel deletion increase under noise simulated age-related hearing loss. A perception experiment was conducted for young normal-hearing listeners, British English native speakers, in both noise and no-noise conditions. We used real English words were used as target words for this experiment which have consonant clusters in the word-initial and word-final (Type1) and that vowel deletion can occur in first or second vowels (V1 and V2) (Type2). These words were produced and recorded by a male British English native speaker, and the speech sounds were used as the stimuli of this experiment. V1 or V2 in Type2 was produced with deletion and non-deletion. The results showed that the misperception rate of words of Type1 and Type 2 with deletion increased in the noise condition. However, the misperception rate was greater for Type2 with deletion than Type 1 in the noise condition, suggesting vowel energy is important to perceive English words in the noise condition. Hence, the misperception rate by elderly English native listeners is expected to increase for these words as well this result in the simulation of age-related hearing loss.