Speech Perception Assessment and Training System

项目描述（由申请人提供）：本项目将开发一个多媒体言语感知评估和训练系统，旨在提高成年助听器使用者的言语感知技能。据估计，三分之一的成年人最终会遭受听力损失。随着美国人口的老龄化，越来越多的人将受到影响。该系统开发的关键假设是，精心设计的听觉训练可以提高已经安装并习惯使用助听器的人的言语感知能力。在第一阶段，将进行一项培训研究，其中将评估五名参与者仅使用声学线索识别英语辅音的能力。然后，参与者将接受强化训练，以提高他们对八个辅音的感知技能。将进行培训后评估，以评估培训方法的成功。如果第一阶段的研究表明，听觉训练确实可以提高这一人群的言语感知技能，这些方法沿着的训练方法，旨在优化使用的语言和语用冗余固有的现实世界的沟通将被纳入第二阶段的培训系统。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project will develop a multimedia speech perception assessment and training system designed to improve the speech perception skills of adult hearing-aid users. It is estimated that one in three adults will eventually suffer hearing loss. As the population of the US ages, more and more people will be affected. The key assumption underlying the development of the system is that carefully structured auditory training can improve the speech perception abilities of people who have been fitted with and grown accustomed to using hearing aids. In phase I a training study will be conducted in which five participants will be assessed for their ability to identify English consonants using only acoustic cues. Participants will then undergo intensive training to improve their perception skills on eight of the consonants shown to be difficult. A posttraining assessment will be conducted to evaluate the success of the training method. If the Phase I study shows that auditory training can indeed improve speech perceptions skills for this population, these methods along with methods for training designed to optimize the use of the linguistic and pragmatic redundancy inherent in real-world communication will be incorporated into the Phase II training system.