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ABSTRACT INFORMATION
Title: 'Effects of linguistic environment on detection of /s/ and /z/' Track: 2 - Audiological Services Keyword(s): audibility, aided testing, frequency lowering Learning Objectives: Abstract: Previous studies have shown that children’s ability to recognize high-frequency speech sounds is influenced by signal bandwidth (e.g. Stelmachowicz et al. 2001). This concept has motivated researchers to use plurals detection as a quantitative measure of the effects of high frequency audibility with frequency lowering technology (e.g. Wolfe et al. 2009). High-frequency morpheme recognition may also be influenced by other cues including linguistic, visual, task-related (open vs. closed set), and acoustic duration; however, little is known about how children use these cues to support speech recognition. The goal of this project was to determine the effect of linguistic environment (targets embedded in low context sentences versus in isolation), voicing, and lexical word type on children’s ability to detect high-frequency morphemes /s/ and /z/ in the word final position. Participants were 25 children with normal hearing (NH) and 10 children who were hard of hearing (HH) ages 5-12 years. Open-set word and sentence lists and the UWO Plurals Test were used as stimuli. All stimuli were presented in noise with a +10 dB SNR. NH participants listened to 4 and 8 kHz low pass filtered lists. HH participants listened to the 8 kHz filtered materials and wore their own hearing aids. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed that word-final /s/ and /z/ detection is more accurate when targets are embedded in sentences and when targets are in closed-set, explicit instruction tasks. This finding suggests that in addition to bandwidth, co-articulation and the nature of the task (open vs. closed set with explicit instructions) also influence /s/ and /z/ detection. The implication of these results is that a variety of linguistic contexts should be used to assess the effects of frequency lowering hearing aids to approximate listener’s capabilities across a range of listening situations. Presentation: This presentation has not yet been uploaded or the speaker has opted not to make the presentation available online. Handouts: Handout is not Available
PRESENTER(S) / AUTHOR(S) INFORMATION
Hannah Hodson - POC,Author Boys Town National Research Hospital      Other Affiliations: Boys Town National Research Hospital             ASHA DISCLOSURE: Financial - Nonfinancial - Meredith Spratford - Author Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, NE      Other Affiliations: Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, NE             ASHA DISCLOSURE: Financial - No relevant financial relationship exist. Nonfinancial - No relevant nonfinancial relationship exist. Marc Brennan - Author             ASHA DISCLOSURE: Financial - Nonfinancial - Lori Leibold - Author The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences      Credentials: Ph.D.       Lori Leibold is an Associate Professor in the Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She received her Ph.D. at the University of Washington in Seattle and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Boys Town National Research Hospital in Omaha.       ASHA DISCLOSURE: Financial - Nonfinancial - Ellen Hatala - Author Boys Town National Research Hospital      Other Affiliations: Boys Town National Research Hospital             ASHA DISCLOSURE: Financial - Nonfinancial - Ryan McCreery - Author Boys Town National Research Hospital      Other Affiliations: Boys Town National Research Hospital             ASHA DISCLOSURE: Financial - Nonfinancial -