The ability to make multiple auditory judgments about non-speech stimuli

描述(申请人提供)：项目摘要本研究将考察听者对非言语听觉刺激做出多项快速判断的能力。这些刺激将同时和/或顺序地在三个维度上变化：幅度、频率和感知位置。最近关于听障听者处理快速、嘈杂语音的能力的研究(例如，McCoy等人，2005)发现了独立于理解和记忆更清晰呈现的语音的能力而存在的缺陷。这项研究将考察在不要求听者使用任何特定的语言相关机制的设计中，快速和同时刺激变化的处理。需要检验的假设是，做出多重判断的能力取决于短期记忆和处理资源的可用性。具体目标包括1)检验刺激之间的时间关系的作用(同时和顺序)，2)比较在一个频率范围内做出多重判断的能力和跨频率做出多重判断的能力，以及3)检验这样一种假设，即当听者试图按顺序做出几个判断时，不同类型的干扰会发生，而不是当他们必须在感觉记忆中保持目标刺激以与延迟的线索进行比较时。在不断变化的环境中，相关性听众往往比存在相同噪声水平时经历更多的困难，但环境变化不是那么快。对于那些即使是轻微听力损失的人来说，这是一个特别的问题。通过提高我们对分析快速变化的听觉环境的过程的理解，我们希望提高我们创造合适的治疗方法和设备的能力，以减少听力受损的听众所经历的困难。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): PROJECT SUMMARY This research will examine the ability of listeners to make multiple rapid judgments about non-speech auditory stimuli. These stimuli will vary simultaneously and/or sequentially on three dimensions: amplitude, frequency and perceived location. Recent work on the ability of hearing-impaired listeners to process rapid, noisy speech (e.g. McCoy et al., 2005) has identified deficits that exist independent of the ability to understand and remember more clearly presented speech. This study will examine the processing of rapid and simultaneous stimulus changes in a design that does not require listeners to make use of any specific language-related mechanisms. The hypothesis to be tested is that the ability to make multiple judgments depends on short-term memory and the availability of processing resources. Specific aims involve 1) examining the role of temporal relationships between stimuli (simultaneous vs sequential), 2) comparing the ability to make multiple judgments within a frequency region with the ability to do so across frequencies and 3) examining the hypothesis that different types of interference occur when listeners try to make several judgments in sequence as opposed to when they must hold the target stimuli in sensory memory to make a comparison with a delayed cue. RELEVANCE Listeners in constantly changing environments often experience more difficulties than when the same noise level is present but the environment is not changing so rapidly. This is a particular problem for those with even mild hearing loss. By improving our understanding of the processes by which a rapidly changing auditory environment is analyzed, we hope to improve our ability to create appropriate therapies and devices to reduce the difficulties hearing-impaired listeners experience.