Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina 29425, USA.
J Acoust Soc Am. 2018 Feb;143(2):1085. doi: 10.1121/1.5024333.
The ability to identify who is talking is an important aspect of communication in social situations and, while empirical data are limited, it is possible that a disruption to this ability contributes to the difficulties experienced by listeners with hearing loss. In this study, talker identification was examined under both quiet and masked conditions. Subjects were grouped by hearing status (normal hearing/sensorineural hearing loss) and age (younger/older adults). Listeners first learned to identify the voices of four same-sex talkers in quiet, and then talker identification was assessed (1) in quiet, (2) in speech-shaped, steady-state noise, and (3) in the presence of a single, unfamiliar same-sex talker. Both younger and older adults with hearing loss, as well as older adults with normal hearing, generally performed more poorly than younger adults with normal hearing, although large individual differences were observed in all conditions. Regression analyses indicated that both age and hearing loss were predictors of performance in quiet, and there was some evidence for an additional contribution of hearing loss in the presence of masking. These findings suggest that both hearing loss and age may affect the ability to identify talkers in "cocktail party" situations.
在社交情境中，能够识别说话者是谁是交流的一个重要方面，虽然实证数据有限，但这种能力的中断可能导致听力损失的听众遇到困难。在这项研究中，在安静和掩蔽条件下检查了说话者识别能力。受试者按听力状况（正常听力/感音神经性听力损失）和年龄（年轻/年长成人）分组。听众首先在安静环境中学习识别四个同性别的说话者的声音，然后评估说话者识别能力（1）在安静环境中，（2）在语音成形的稳态噪声中，（3）在单个陌生同性别的说话者存在的情况下。听力损失的年轻和年长成人，以及正常听力的年长成人，通常比正常听力的年轻成人表现更差，尽管在所有条件下都观察到了很大的个体差异。回归分析表明，年龄和听力损失都是安静条件下表现的预测因素，并且在掩蔽存在的情况下，听力损失可能有额外的贡献。这些发现表明，听力损失和年龄都可能影响在“鸡尾酒会”情况下识别说话者的能力。
