Auditory temporal processes, speech perception and aging

他在言语感知和心理声学方面的研究项目， 老年人听力理解困难与听觉颞叶功能障碍有关 处理.目前的调查和计划在延长期内进行的调查审查了以下问题： 老年听众在理解口音英语，和赤字的性质， 处理任务。在口音英语的识别方面，已经观察到与口音相关的差异（Burda et 例如，2003年），尽管导致这种年龄效应的因素尚不清楚。实验将探索 西班牙语母语者对英语句子的认知，因为西班牙语是母语 在美国的大多数移民（美国人口普查局，2003，2004）。变更的持续时间 语音片段（音素）的声学线索;以及整体韵律（时序）的变化 结构）是口音英语的主要特征。因此，口音英语 可以被看作是一种时间上改变的语言形式，对于老年人来说， 准确地感知。早期的实验阶段研究了时间改变的相对重要性， 语音和非语音信号中的分段线索与序列定时线索，因为这些线索涉及到 识别口音英语。后期阶段评估与年龄相关的影响差异， 分散注意力的信息感知时间改变的信号和潜在的好处， 感知准确感知所需的关键时间线索的能力。结果应该阐明 老年听众在理解口音英语方面所经历的沟通缺陷的性质， 建议一些方法来提高他们对这种改变语言形式的理解，他们可能会 在与经常在服务部门工作的非母语谈话者交流时遇到的问题（美国） 人口普查局，2004年）。

his program of studies in speech perception and psychoacousticsexamines the hypothesis that many of he elderly listener's difficulties in understanding speech are associated with deficits in auditory temporal processing. The current investigations and those planned for the extension period examine the problems of elderly listeners in understanding accented English, and the nature of deficits in associatedtemporal processing tasks. Age-related differences in recognition of accented English have been observed(Burda et al., 2003), although the factors that contribute to this age effect are unknown. The experiments will probe ¿ecognition of English sentences spoken by native Spanish talkers, because Spanish is the native language of the majority of immigrants in the U.S. (U.S. Census Bureau, 2003, 2004). Alterations in the duration of acoustic cues for speech segments (phonemes); as well as alterations in the overall prosody (timing structure) of the spoken message, are major characteristics of accented English. Hence, accented English can be viewed as a form of temporally altered speech that should be quite difficult for elderly listeners to perceive accurately. The early experimental stages examine the relative importance of temporally altered segmental cues vs. sequence timing cues in speech and non-speech signals, as these cues relate to recognition of accented English. The later stages evaluate age-related differences in the effects of distracting information on perceiving temporally altered signals and the potential benefits of training on the ability to perceive critical temporal cues necessary for accurate perception. The results should elucidate the nature of communication deficits experienced by elderly listeners in understanding accented English, and will suggest methods to improve their understanding of this form of altered speech, which they are likely to encounter during communication with non-native talkers who frequently work in the service sector (U.S. Census Bureau, 2004).