Introducing ART: A new method for testing auditory memory with circular reproduction tasks.

Theories of visual working memory have seen significant progress through the use of continuous reproduction tasks. However, these tasks have mainly focused on studying visual features, with limited examples existing in the auditory domain. Therefore, it is unknown to what extent newly developed memory models reflect domain-general limitations or are specific to the visual domain.

Lexical Stress Identification in Cochlear Implant-Simulated Speech by Non-Native Listeners.

This study investigates whether a presumed difference in the perceptibility of cues to lexical stress in spectro-temporally degraded simulated cochlear implant (CI) speech affects how listeners weight these cues during a lexical stress identification task, specifically in their non-native language. Previous research suggests that in English, listeners predominantly rely on a reduction in vowel quality as a cue to lexical stress. In Dutch, changes in the fundamental frequency (F0) contour seem to have a greater functional weight than the vowel quality contrast.

Foreign Language Acquisition in Adolescent Cochlear Implant Users.

Objectives: This study explores to what degree adolescent cochlear implant (CI) users can learn a foreign language in a school setting similar to their normal-hearing (NH) peers despite the degraded auditory input.

Design: A group of native Dutch adolescent CI users (age range 13 to 17 years) learning English as a foreign language at secondary school and a group of NH controls (age range 12 to 15 years) were assessed on their Dutch and English language skills using various language tasks that either relied on the processing of auditory information (i.e.

Prosodic Focus Interpretation in Spectrotemporally Degraded Speech by Non-Native Listeners.

Purpose: This study assesses how spectrotemporal degradations that can occur in the sound transmission of a cochlear implant (CI) may influence the ability of non-native listeners to recognize the intended meaning of utterances based on the position of the prosodically focused word. Previous research suggests that perceptual accuracy and listening effort are negatively affected by CI processing (or CI simulations) or when the speech is presented in a non-native language, in a number of tasks and circumstances. How these two factors interact to affect prosodic focus interpretation, however, remains unclear.

Working-Memory, Alpha-Theta Oscillations and Musical Training in Older Age: Research Perspectives for Speech-on-speech Perception.

During the normal course of aging, perception of speech-on-speech or "cocktail party" speech and use of working memory (WM) abilities change. Musical training, which is a complex activity that integrates multiple sensory modalities and higher-order cognitive functions, reportedly benefits both WM performance and speech-on-speech perception in older adults. This mini-review explores the relationship between musical training, WM and speech-on-speech perception in older age (> 65 years) through the lens of the Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model.

Meta-Analysis on the Identification of Linguistic and Emotional Prosody in Cochlear Implant Users and Vocoder Simulations.

Objectives: This study quantitatively assesses how cochlear implants (CIs) and vocoder simulations of CIs influence the identification of linguistic and emotional prosody in nontonal languages. By means of meta-analysis, it was explored how accurately CI users and normal-hearing (NH) listeners of vocoder simulations (henceforth: simulation listeners) identify prosody compared with NH listeners of unprocessed speech (henceforth: NH listeners), whether this effect of electric hearing differs between CI users and simulation listeners, and whether the effect of electric hearing is influenced by the type of prosody that listeners identify or by the availability of specific cues in the speech signal.

Design: Records were found by searching the PubMed Central, Web of Science, Scopus, Science Direct, and PsycINFO databases (January 2018) using the search terms "cochlear implant prosody" and "vocoder prosody.

Effect of Spectral Channels on Speech Recognition, Comprehension, and Listening Effort in Cochlear-Implant Users.

In favorable listening conditions, cochlear-implant (CI) users can reach high speech recognition scores with as little as seven active electrodes. Here, we hypothesized that even when speech recognition is high, additional spectral channels may still benefit other aspects of speech perception, such as comprehension and listening effort. Twenty-five adult, postlingually deafened CI users, selected from two Dutch implant centers for high clinical word identification scores, participated in two experiments.

Effects of Additional Low-Pass-Filtered Speech on Listening Effort for Noise-Band-Vocoded Speech in Quiet and in Noise.

Objectives: Residual acoustic hearing in electric-acoustic stimulation (EAS) can benefit cochlear implant (CI) users in increased sound quality, speech intelligibility, and improved tolerance to noise. The goal of this study was to investigate whether the low-pass-filtered acoustic speech in simulated EAS can provide the additional benefit of reducing listening effort for the spectrotemporally degraded signal of noise-band-vocoded speech.

Design: Listening effort was investigated using a dual-task paradigm as a behavioral measure, and the NASA Task Load indeX as a subjective self-report measure.

Does Signal Degradation Affect Top-Down Processing of Speech?

Speech perception is formed based on both the acoustic signal and listeners' knowledge of the world and semantic context. Access to semantic information can facilitate interpretation of degraded speech, such as speech in background noise or the speech signal transmitted via cochlear implants (CIs). This paper focuses on the latter, and investigates the time course of understanding words, and how sentential context reduces listeners' dependency on the acoustic signal for natural and degraded speech via an acoustic CI simulation.

The effects of acute tryptophan depletion on speech and behavioural mimicry in individuals at familial risk for depression.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) has been associated with abnormalities in speech and behavioural mimicry. These abnormalities may contribute to the impairments in interpersonal functioning that are often seen in MDD patients. MDD has also been associated with disturbances in the brain serotonin system, but the extent to which serotonin regulates speech and behavioural mimicry remains unclear.

Validation of a simple response-time measure of listening effort.

This study compares two response-time measures of listening effort that can be combined with a clinical speech test for a more comprehensive evaluation of total listening experience; verbal response times to auditory stimuli (RT(aud)) and response times to a visual task (RTs(vis)) in a dual-task paradigm. The listening task was presented in five masker conditions; no noise, and two types of noise at two fixed intelligibility levels. Both the RTs(aud) and RTs(vis) showed effects of noise.

Listening effort with cochlear implant simulations.

Purpose: Fitting a cochlear implant (CI) for optimal speech perception does not necessarily optimize listening effort. This study aimed to show that listening effort may change between CI processing conditions for which speech intelligibility remains constant.

Method: Nineteen normal-hearing participants listened to CI simulations with varying numbers of spectral channels.

Objective measures of listening effort: effects of background noise and noise reduction.

Purpose: This work is aimed at addressing a seeming contradiction related to the use of noise-reduction (NR) algorithms in hearing aids. The problem is that although some listeners claim a subjective improvement from NR, it has not been shown to improve speech intelligibility, often even making it worse.

Method: To address this, the hypothesis tested here is that the positive effects of NR might be to reduce cognitive effort directed toward speech reception, making it available for other tasks.

Auditory stream segregation with cochlear implants: A preliminary report.

Auditory stream segregation was measured in cochlear implant (CI) listeners using a subjective "Yes-No" task in which listeners indicated whether a sequence of stimuli was perceived as two separate streams or not. Stimuli were brief, 50-ms pulse trains A and B, presented in an A_B_A_A_B_A..