Effect of signal-temporal uncertainty during childhood

描述（由申请人提供）：儿童比成人更容易受到竞争声音的干扰。在实验室中，儿童对听觉掩蔽的敏感性增加对于音调检测和语音识别任务都是显而易见的，特别是当背景掩蔽物复杂且不可预测时。这项研究的长期目标是了解儿童如何在不可预测和复杂的竞争背景声音中发展听到信号的能力。该提案的具体目的是（1）描述5-13岁年龄段听觉掩蔽敏感性的变化，以及（2）确定儿童是否可以从提示何时及时收听感兴趣的声音中受益。拟议的研究将使用音调和语音刺激来确定整个儿童时期对掩蔽的敏感性的变化，以及与这两种类型刺激的拟议线索相关的益处。这项研究的核心假设是，在复杂的听力条件下，幼儿比年长的儿童或成年人更容易受到掩蔽的影响，并且这种增加的掩蔽可以通过提供一个提示来抵消，该提示指示何时及时收听信号。这项拟议中的研究将增加我们对儿童如何在自然环境中倾听的知识，在自然环境中，经常存在多种不可预测的声源，例如教室。 公共卫生相关性：儿童比成人更容易受到竞争声音的干扰。这项拟议中的研究将增加我们对儿童对竞争声音的敏感性如何在童年时期发生变化的了解，以及儿童是否可以从指示何时及时倾听感兴趣的声音的线索中受益。这项工作很重要，因为儿童在嘈杂和不可预测的自然听力环境中学习语言。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Children are more susceptible to interference from competing sounds than adults. In the laboratory, children's increased susceptibility to auditory masking is evident for both tone detection and speech recognition tasks, especially when the background maskers are complex and unpredictable. The long-term objective of this line of research is to understand how children develop the ability to hear signals in the presence of unpredictable and complex competing background sounds. The specific aims of this proposal are (1) to characterize changes in susceptibility to auditory masking across the age range of 5-13 years and (2) to determine if children can benefit from cues indicating when in time to listen for a sound of interest. The proposed studies will use both tonal and speech stimuli to determine changes in susceptibility to masking across childhood and the benefit associated with the proposed cue for both types of stimuli. The central hypothesis for the proposed research is that young children are more susceptible to masking under complex listening conditions than older children or adults, and that this increased masking can be offset by providing a cue that indicates when in time to listen for the signal. The proposed research will increase our knowledge of how children listen in natural settings where multiple and unpredictable sound sources are often present, such as classrooms. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Children are more susceptible to interference from competing sounds than adults. The proposed research will increase our knowledge of how children's susceptibility to competing sounds changes across childhood and if children can benefit from a cue that indicates when in time to listen for a sound of interest. This work is important because children learn language in natural listening environments that are noisy and unpredictable.