Abstract
Listeners with sensorineural hearing impairments generally show deficits in frequency resolution accompanying their decreased auditory sensitivity. Poor frequency resolution may make it difficult for these listeners to distinguish among vowels with similar formant frequencies. In English, these vowels tend to form tense/lax pairs (e.g., i/ɪ, æ/ɛ) which differ in duration. The present study examined hearing‐impaired and normal‐hearing listeners' use of duration and formant frequency information in the labeling of synthetic CVC stimuli forming a /bit‐bit/continuum. Durational and F2 frequency cues to vowel identity varied systematically across stimuli. Frequency resolution at 2000 Hz (the F2 region for i/ɪ was measured using a notched‐noise masking paradigm. A temporal difference limen for a narrow‐band noise centered at 2000 Hz was also measured. Subjects with normal frequency and temporal resolution tended to rely primarily on formant frequency information in the vowel labeling task. However, subjects with abnormal frequency resolution but near‐normal temporal difference limens made greater use of vowel duration in vowel identification. [Work supported by NIH.]
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