Chintanpalli Ananthakrishna, Ahlstrom Jayne B, Dubno Judy R
Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Medical University of South Carolina, 135 Rutledge Avenue, MSC 550, Charleston, South Carolina 29425-5500, USA.
J Acoust Soc Am. 2016 Dec;140(6):4142. doi: 10.1121/1.4968781.
Differences in formant frequencies and fundamental frequencies (F0) are important cues for segregating and identifying two simultaneous vowels. This study assessed age- and hearing-loss-related changes in the use of these cues for recognition of one or both vowels in a pair and determined differences related to vowel identity and specific vowel pairings. Younger adults with normal hearing, older adults with normal hearing, and older adults with hearing loss listened to different-vowel and identical-vowel pairs that varied in F0 differences. Identification of both vowels as a function of F0 difference revealed that increased age affects the use of F0 and formant difference cues for different-vowel pairs. Hearing loss further reduced the use of these cues, which was not attributable to lower vowel sensation levels. High scores for one vowel in the pair and no effect of F0 differences suggested that F0 cues are important only for identifying both vowels. In contrast to mean scores, widely varying differences in effects of F0 cues, age, and hearing loss were observed for particular vowels and vowel pairings. These variations in identification of vowel pairs were not explained by acoustical models based on the location and level of formants within the two vowels.
共振峰频率和基频（F0）的差异是区分和识别两个同时出现的元音的重要线索。本研究评估了与年龄和听力损失相关的这些线索在识别一对元音中的一个或两个元音时的变化，并确定了与元音身份和特定元音配对相关的差异。听力正常的年轻人、听力正常的老年人以及有听力损失的老年人听取了F0差异不同的不同元音对和相同元音对。将两个元音的识别作为F0差异的函数进行分析，结果显示年龄增长会影响不同元音对中F0和共振峰差异线索的使用。听力损失进一步减少了这些线索的使用，这并非归因于较低的元音感知水平。一对元音中一个元音的高分以及F0差异没有影响，这表明F0线索仅对识别两个元音很重要。与平均分数相反，对于特定的元音和元音配对，观察到F0线索、年龄和听力损失的影响存在广泛不同的差异。基于两个元音中共振峰的位置和水平的声学模型无法解释这些元音对识别中的变化。
