Heeren Willemijn, Coene Martine, Vaerenberg Bart, Avram Andrei, Cardinaletti Anna, del Bo Luca, Pascu Alexandru, Volpato Francesca, Govaerts Paul J
Leiden University, The Netherlands.
Cochlear Implants Int. 2012 Nov;13(4):206-19. doi: 10.1179/1754762811Y.0000000035. Epub 2012 Mar 8.
The auditory speech sounds evaluation 2009 test battery for assessment of speech pitch perception is presented. It was designed to (a) assess perception of pitch in linguistic contexts without the confounds of secondary acoustic cues, (b) be usable with listeners from different language backgrounds, and (c) be suitable for use in a clinical setting. The need for this test battery arises from increased awareness of the importance of prosody in clinical practice, and the development of methods for improving pitch perception in listeners with profound hearing losses.
Identification and discrimination tasks based on linguistic contexts were developed to establish listeners' just noticeable differences (JNDs) for pitch changes. Stimuli were pseudosentences and pseudowords based on speech from a female speaker, overlain with stylized pitch contours. Target pitch excursions were varied from the 200 Hz baseline to a maximum of 349 Hz. Ninety normal-hearing listeners participated in test validation that assessed goals (a)-(c), established test-retest reliability, and gathered normative data.
The JNDs on non-linguistic, control tasks were lower than on linguistic ones, showing that non-linguistic tasks may overestimate pitch perception in speech. Listeners from different language backgrounds scored comparably on most linguistic tasks, and test-retest differences were non-significant. Test usability as evidenced by task duration and subject experience seemed satisfactory for clinical use.
介绍用于评估语音音高感知的2009年听觉语音声音评估测试组。其设计目的是：（a）在没有次要声学线索干扰的语言环境中评估音高感知；（b）适用于来自不同语言背景的听众；（c）适合在临床环境中使用。开发此测试组的需求源于临床实践中对韵律重要性的认识不断提高，以及为改善重度听力损失听众的音高感知而开发的方法。
开发基于语言环境的识别和辨别任务，以确定听众对音高变化的刚可察觉差异（JND）。刺激材料是基于女性说话者语音的伪句子和伪单词，并叠加了风格化的音高轮廓。目标音高偏移从200赫兹基线变化到最大349赫兹。90名听力正常的听众参与了测试验证，该验证评估了目标（a）至（c），确立了重测信度，并收集了常模数据。
非语言控制任务的JND低于语言任务的JND，表明非语言任务可能高估了语音中的音高感知。来自不同语言背景的听众在大多数语言任务上得分相当，重测差异不显著。从任务时长和受试者体验来看，测试可用性似乎足以满足临床使用。
