Central Factors in Auditory Masking

项目总结/摘要 在这个建议中所描述的工作的目标是获得更好的理解的听觉沟通 感音神经性听力损失患者的听力损失。拟议的工作审查"掩蔽"- 不需要的声音对听觉交流的干扰-以及掩蔽如何影响听众， 听力损失研究计划是基于这样的理论，即掩蔽包括两个主要的 成分：能量掩蔽，这主要是由于目标和掩蔽声音之间的相互作用， 听觉周边和信息掩蔽，这发生在更高的处理水平，尽管有足够的 目标声音在外围的表示。有感觉神经性听力的听众 在日常交流任务中，损失受到能量掩蔽与信息掩蔽的影响-例如 在一个拥挤、嘈杂的房间里进行谈话--这并不为人所知。研究计划考察了 其中语音使用分离每种掩蔽类型的影响的方法来掩蔽其它语音。到 为了实现这一点，提出了一系列的心理物理和语音识别实验，其中， 和信息掩蔽以受控的方式变化。在第一个目标中， 考虑掩蔽后的性能使用信号处理方法-"理想时频 分离"-将语音混合减少为目标主导的"一瞥"。通过比较 正常听力和听力受损的听众在识别这种处理的刺激，我们将获得更好的 了解听力损失是否会因为无法合成 在语音混合中出现的目标的零碎一瞥，或者是由于增加的能量和/或 信息掩蔽在第二个目标中，语言因素在造成信息掩蔽中的作用是 在正常听力和听力受损的听众中进行检查和比较。语言处理依赖于 但是也需要足够的处理能力 在与其他声音竞争的情况下分离和注意语音流的任务，包括 不相干的言论语言因素如何与较低水平的隔离线索相互作用，以导致-或 发布-信息屏蔽将使用一种新的问答模式进行， 一种信息理解的衡量标准。在第三个目标中，听力正常者和听力受损者的能力 听众从语音序列或学习到的非语音模式中提取信息的能力将在 能量和信息掩蔽条件。假设听力损失是一个额外的负担， 有限的加工能力将在一系列新的掩蔽回忆实验中进行检查。最后，在整个 实验计划将对选定的个人特征、能力和先前的经验进行测量， 获得并与心理物理和言语感知结果相关，试图了解起源 个体之间的巨大差异

Project Summary / Abstract The goal of the work described in this proposal is to obtain a better understanding of the auditory communication difficulties experienced by listeners with sensorineural hearing loss. The proposed work examines "masking" - the interference in auditory communication caused by unwanted sounds - and how masking affects listeners with sensorineural hearing loss. The plan of research is based on the theory that masking consists of two main components: energetic masking, which is due primarily to interactions between target and masker sounds in the auditory periphery, and informational masking, which occurs at higher levels of processing despite an adequate representation of the target sounds in the periphery. The extent to which listeners with sensorineural hearing loss are affected by energetic masking versus informational masking in daily communication tasks - such as following a conversation in a crowded, noisy room - is not well known. The research plan examines conditions where speech masks other speech using methods that separate the influence of each type of masking. To accomplish this a series of psychophysical and speech recognition experiments are proposed in which energetic and informational masking are varied in a controlled manner. In the first aim, a quantitative estimate of performance after accounting for masking is planned using a signal processing approach - "ideal time-frequency segregation" - that reduces speech mixtures to target-dominated "glimpses". By comparing the performance of normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners in recognizing this processed stimulus, we will obtain a better understanding of whether hearing loss degrades performance because of an inability to synthesize the piecemeal glimpses of the target that occur in speech mixtures, or is due to increased energetic and/or informational masking. In the second aim, the role of linguistic factors in causing informational masking is examined and compared in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners. Linguistic processing depends on an adequate representation of the speech signal in the periphery but also requires sufficient processing capacity for the tasks of segregating and attending to the speech stream under competition from other sounds including irrelevant speech. Explicit tests of how linguistic factors interact with lower-level segregation cues to cause - or release - informational masking will be conducted using a new question-and-answer paradigm that incorporates a measure of message comprehension. In the third aim, the ability of normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners to extract information from sequences of speech or learned nonspeech patterns will be compared under energetic and informational masking conditions. The hypothesis that hearing loss acts as an additional load on limited processing capacity will be examined in a series of novel masked recall experiments. Finally, throughout the experimental program measures of selected individual characteristics, abilities and prior experience will be obtained and correlated with the psychophysical and speech perception results in an attempt to learn the origins of the enormous differences often observed between individuals.