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

本研究将考察听者对非言语性听觉刺激做出多种快速判断的能力。这些刺激将在三个维度上同时和/或依次变化：幅度、频率和感知位置。最近关于听力受损的听者处理快速、嘈杂言语的能力的研究（例如McCoy等人，2005年）已经确定了与理解和记忆更清晰的言语能力无关的缺陷。这项研究将在一个不需要听众使用任何特定语言相关机制的设计中，检验对快速和同时的刺激变化的处理。要测试的假设是，做出多种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)检查刺激之间的时间关系（同时与顺序）的作用；2)比较在一个频率区域内做出多个判断的能力与跨频率做出判断的能力；3)检查当听众试图按顺序做出几个判断时，不同类型的干扰会发生的假设，而不是当他们必须将目标刺激保存在感觉记忆中以与延迟提示进行比较时。在不断变化的环境中，听众往往比在同样的噪音水平存在但环境变化不那么快的情况下遇到更多的困难。这对那些甚至有轻微听力损失的人来说都是一个特别的问题。通过提高我们对快速变化的听觉环境分析过程的理解，我们希望提高我们创造适当的治疗方法和设备的能力，以减少听障听众所经历的困难。

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.