Altered Auditory Feedback in Teachers: A Preliminary Investigation.

Purpose: Due to the elevated vocal risks of university professors and the possible relationship between auditory-motor integration and voice disorders, the current study was designed to explore the effects of altered auditory feedback via bone conduction on voice production measures in university professors.

Methods: A total of 43 hours of voice recordings across 32 university classes were collected from two vocally healthy college professors through voice dosimetry. During their classes, the professors experienced either the real-time altered auditory feedback or a condition without altered auditory feedback.

The role of long-term target and masker talker familiarity in children's speech-in-speech recognition.

Objectives: This study investigated the influence of long-term talker familiarity on speech-in-speech recognition in school-age children, with a specific emphasis on the role of familiarity with the mother's voice as either the target or masker speech.

Design: Open-set sentence recognition was measured adaptively in a two-talker masker. Target and masker sentences were recorded by the adult mothers of the child participants.

Can Playing a Game Improve Children's Speech Recognition? A Preliminary Study of Implicit Talker Familiarity Effects.

Purpose: The goal was to evaluate whether implicit talker familiarization via an interactive computer game, designed for this study, could improve children's word recognition in classroom noise. It was hypothesized that, regardless of age, children would perform better when recognizing words spoken by the talker who was heard during the game they played.

Method: Using a one-group pretest-posttest experimental design, this study examined the impact of short-term implicit voice exposure on children's word recognition in classroom noise.

The effects of face masks on speech-in-speech recognition for children and adults.

Objectives: This study explored the effects of different face masks on school-age children's and young adults' word recognition.

Design: Speech recognition thresholds were measured adaptively in a two-talker speech masker using a closed-set picture pointing task. Target words were recorded by a female talker in five conditions: no mask, transparent mask, face shield, N95 mask and surgical mask.

Effects of Target and Masker Fundamental Frequency Contour Depth on School-Age Children's Speech Recognition in a Two-Talker Masker.

Purpose: Maturation of the ability to recognize target speech in the presence of a two-talker speech masker extends into early adolescence. This study evaluated whether children benefit from differences in fundamental frequency ( ) contour depth between the target and masker speech, a cue that has been shown to improve recognition in adults.

Method: Speech stimuli were recorded from talkers using three speaking styles, with contour depths that were Flat, Normal, or Exaggerated.

Effects of Hearing Loss on School-Aged Children's Ability to Benefit From F0 Differences Between Target and Masker Speech.

Objectives: The objectives of the study were to (1) evaluate the impact of hearing loss on children's ability to benefit from F0 differences between target/masker speech in the context of aided speech-in-speech recognition and (2) to determine whether compromised F0 discrimination associated with hearing loss predicts F0 benefit in individual children. We hypothesized that children wearing appropriately fitted amplification would benefit from F0 differences, but they would not show the same magnitude of benefit as children with normal hearing. Reduced audibility and poor suprathreshold encoding that degrades frequency discrimination were expected to impair children's ability to segregate talkers based on F0.

Independent and Combined Effects of Fundamental Frequency and Vocal Tract Length Differences for School-Age Children's Sentence Recognition in a Two-Talker Masker.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the independent and combined contributions of fundamental frequency (F0) and vocal tract length (VTL) differences on children's speech-in-speech recognition in the presence of a competing two-talker masker. Method Participants were 64 children (5-17 years old) and 25 adults (18-39 years old). Sentence recognition thresholds were measured in a two-talker masker.

Developmental Effects in Children's Ability to Benefit From F0 Differences Between Target and Masker Speech.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to (1) evaluate the extent to which school-age children benefit from fundamental frequency (F0) differences between target words and competing two-talker speech, and (2) assess whether this benefit changes with age. It was predicted that while children would be more susceptible to speech-in-speech masking compared to adults, they would benefit from differences in F0 between target and masker speech. A second experiment was conducted to evaluate the relationship between frequency discrimination thresholds and the ability to benefit from target/masker differences in F0.

Development of frequency discrimination at 250 Hz is similar for tone and /ba/ stimuli.

Frequency discrimination was measured in 5- to 11-year-olds and adults with normal hearing. The standard stimulus was either a 250-Hz tone or the syllable /ba/ with a fundamental frequency (F0) of 250 Hz. Target stimuli were higher in frequency than the standard, and the threshold for frequency discrimination was determined adaptively for each of the two stimulus types separately.

Cues for auditory stream segregation of birdsong in budgerigars and zebra finches: Effects of location, timing, amplitude, and frequency.

Deciphering the auditory scene is a problem faced by many organisms. However, when faced with numerous overlapping sounds from multiple locations, listeners are still able to attribute the individual sound objects to their individual sound-producing sources. Here, the characteristics of sounds important for integrating versus segregating in birds were determined.