Development of Amplitude Modulation as a Grouping Cue

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究计划的目的是确定儿童是否使用振幅调制（AM）作为听觉物体形成的分组线索。具体来说，听觉对象形成指的是将听觉前景与背景分离的能力。本项目将研究儿童使用AM作为分组线索的能力是否与成人不同，以及这种能力是否随着发展而变化。虽然研究人员目前正在研究成人的听觉客体形成，但对儿童的这种现象的发展知之甚少。由于语音包含许多声学特征，语音感知中的听觉分组研究比较复杂，因此将使用时变正弦语音。这些刺激不包含典型的语音声学特征，并已在以前的研究中用于检查成人的听觉分组。新的刺激将基于与年龄相适应的句子。这个项目将检验成人和儿童在感知电视句子时使用AM作为听觉分组线索的能力。将获得电视句子（未调制和调幅在四个频率）的语音识别。据推测，儿童使用AM作为听觉分组线索的能力不如成人，儿童使用这种信息的能力随着年龄的增长而提高。本研究的结果将增强我们对儿童言语知觉中听觉客体形成过程的认识。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The aim of this research proposal is to determine whether children use amplitude comodulation (AM) as a grouping cue in the formation of auditory objects. Specifically, auditory object formation refers to the ability to separate the auditory foreground from the background. This project will examine whether children's ability to use AM as a grouping cue is different from adults and whether this ability changes with development. Although researchers are currently studying auditory object formation in adults, little is known about the development of this phenomenon in children. Because the study of auditory grouping in speech perception is complicated by the fact that speech contains numerous acoustic characteristics, time varying sinusoidal (TVS) speech will be used. These stimuli do not contain typical acoustic characteristics of speech and have been used in previous studies to examine auditory grouping in adults. New stimuli will be developed based on age-appropriate sentences. This project will examine the ability of adults and children to use AM as an auditory grouping cue in the perception of TVS sentences. Speech recognition of TVS sentences (unmodulated and AM at four frequencies) will be obtained. It is hypothesized that children are less able than adults to use AM as an auditory grouping cue and that children's ability to use this information improves with age. The results of this study will enhance our knowledge of the process of auditory object formation in children's speech perception.