School of Communication Science and Disorders, Florida State University, Tallahassee.
Department of Psychology, Utah State University, Logan.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2021 Feb 17;64(2):444-451. doi: 10.1044/2020_JSLHR-20-00313. Epub 2021 Jan 28.
Purpose Perceptual training is a listener-targeted means for improving intelligibility of dysarthric speech. Recent work has shown that training with one talker generalizes to a novel talker of the same sex and that the magnitude of benefit is maximized when the talkers are perceptually similar. The current study expands previous findings by investigating whether perceptual training effects generalize between talkers of different sex. Method Forty new listeners were recruited for this study and completed a pretest, familiarization, and posttest perceptual training paradigm. Historical data collected using the same three-phase protocol were included in the data analysis. All listeners were exposed to the same talker with dysarthria during the pretest and posttest phases. For the familiarization phase, listeners were exposed to one of four talkers with dysarthria, differing in sex and level of perceptual similarity to the test talker or a control talker. During the testing phases, listener transcribed phrases produced by the test talker with dysarthria. Listener transcriptions were then used to calculate a percent words correct intelligibility score. Results Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that intelligibility at posttest was not predicted by sex of the training talker. Consistent with earlier work, the magnitude of intelligibility gain was greater when the familiarization and test talkers were perceptually similar. Additional analyses revealed greater between-listeners variability in the dissimilar conditions as compared to the similar conditions. Conclusions Learning as a result of perceptual training with one talker with dysarthria generalized to another talker regardless of sex. In addition, listeners trained with perceptually similar talkers had greater and more consistent intelligibility improvement. Together, these results add to previous evidence demonstrating that learning generalizes to novel talkers with dysarthria and that perceptual training is suitable for many listeners.
目的 感知训练是一种针对听者的方法，可以提高构音障碍语音的可懂度。最近的研究表明，针对一个说话者的训练可以推广到相同性别的新说话者，并且当说话者在感知上相似时，收益的幅度最大。本研究通过调查感知训练效果是否在不同性别的说话者之间具有普遍性，扩展了之前的发现。
方法 本研究招募了 40 名新听众，并完成了预测试、熟悉度和后测试感知训练范式。使用相同的三阶段协议收集的历史数据也包括在数据分析中。所有听众在前测和后测阶段都接触到同一个有构音障碍的说话者。在熟悉阶段，听众接触到四个有构音障碍的说话者中的一个，这些说话者在性别和与测试说话者或对照说话者的感知相似性方面存在差异。在测试阶段，听众转录有构音障碍的测试说话者所产生的短语。然后使用听众的转录来计算正确单词的百分比可懂度得分。
结果 多元线性回归分析显示，后测时的可懂度不受训练说话者性别的预测。与早期的研究一致，当熟悉度和测试说话者在感知上相似时，可懂度的增益幅度更大。进一步的分析显示，在不相似条件下，听者之间的变异性大于相似条件下的变异性。
结论 从一个有构音障碍的说话者的感知训练中获得的学习结果可以推广到另一个说话者，无论其性别如何。此外，使用感知相似的说话者进行训练的听众在可懂度上有更大和更一致的提高。这些结果与之前的证据一起表明，学习可以推广到有构音障碍的新说话者，并且感知训练适合许多听众。
