Development of Amplitude Modulation as a Grouping Cue

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究建议的目的是确定儿童是否使用振幅共调制（AM）作为听觉对象形成的分组线索。具体地，听觉对象形成是指将听觉前景与背景分离的能力。这个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年人的听觉对象形成，但对儿童这种现象的发展知之甚少。由于语音中包含大量的声学特征，使得语音感知中的听觉分组研究变得复杂，因此将使用时变正弦（TVS）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使用，以检查成人的听觉分组。新的刺激将根据年龄适当的句子开发。本研究将探讨成人和儿童使用AM作为感知TVS句子的听觉分组线索的能力。语音识别的TVS句子（未调制和AM在四个频率）将获得。据推测，儿童比成年人更不能够使用AM作为听觉分组线索，儿童使用这些信息的能力随着年龄的增长而提高。本研究的结果将加深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.