Formation and Tuning of Complex Auditory Categories

描述（由申请人提供）：这个合作研究项目调查复杂声音类别的形成和调谐的潜在过程。总体目标是提供一个听觉分类模型，可以很容易地应用于言语感知和沟通障碍的挑战。语言学习者从许多说话者发出的有经验的语音分布中形成母语语音（语音）听觉类别。然而，这些平均类别可能不适用于特定说话者的演讲。例如，非母语语言可能不遵循母语人士的典型模式。当前项目的目的是开发和测试一个理论和实践模型，以了解听众如何使用上下文来使语音感知正常化或调整到特定听力情况的特征。所提出的实验将使模型超越单纯的规范化演示，对表现作为上下文内容和时间范围的函数进行定量预测。这种实用的模型可用于开发助听器和植入物的信号处理策略，以及预测语音障碍的可理解性。基于先前项目的经验结果，本研究测试了以下假设所产生的预测：对上下文和目标声音之间的频谱相互作用敏感的一般听觉机制可以定量地解释语音感知模式，这种模式似乎需要提取特定的声道说话者信息。另一组实验将测试说话人特定语言模式的感知学习对支持这一机制的影响。最后的一系列实验将弥合语音感知现象测试与理解现实世界语音可理解性和理解力之间经常存在的差距。这种联系对于在治疗沟通障碍中获得理论和循证临床方法至关重要。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This collaborative research program investigates processes underlying the formation and tuning of complex sound categories. The overall goal is to provide a model of auditory categorization that can be readily applied to challenges of speech perception and communication disorders. Language learners form (phonetic) auditory categories of native-language sounds from the distributions of experienced speech sounds produced by many talkers. However, these averaged categories may not be appropriate for the speech produced by a specific talker. For example, non-native speech may not adhere to the patterns typical of native speakers. The aim of the current project is to develop and test a theoretical and practical model of how listeners use context to normalize, or tune, speech perception to the characteristics of a particular listening situation. The proposed experiments will move the model beyond mere demonstrations of normalization to make quantitative predictions of performance as a function of the content and temporal extent of the context. Such a practical model can be used to develop signal processing strategies for hearing aids and implants as well as to predict intelligibility of disordered speech. Building on the empirical outcomes of the previous project, the present research tests predictions arising from the hypothesis that a general auditory mechanism sensitive to the spectral interactions that occur between context and target sounds can account quantitatively for patterns of speech perception that appear to require extraction of vocal-tract-specific talker information. Another set of experiments will test the influence of perceptual learning of talker-specific patterns of speech in supporting this mechanism. A final series of experiments will bridge the gap that often exists between tests of speech perception phenomena and understanding real-world speech intelligibility and comprehension. Such a linkage is critical for deriving theory- and evidence-based clinical approaches in treatment of communication disorders. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Public health requires therapies developed based on detailed knowledge of the underlying mechanisms. Understanding how listeners encode the complex acoustic structure of speech across many talkers is critical to developing and evaluating therapies for individuals affected with language processing disorders, hearing impairment and developmental disorders like autism.