Fishero Sheyenne, Sereno Joan A, Jongman Allard
Linguistics Department, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA.
Brain Sci. 2025 Aug 4;15(8):834. doi: 10.3390/brainsci15080834.
: Speech perception typically takes place against a background of other speech or noise. The present study investigates the effectiveness of segregating speech streams within a competing speech signal, examining whether cues such as pitch, which typically denote a difference in talker, behave in the same way as cues such as speaking rate, which typically do not denote the presence of a new talker. : Native English speakers listened to English target speech within English two-talker babble of a similar or different pitch and/or a similar or different speaking rate to identify whether mismatched properties between target speech and masker babble improve speech segregation. Additionally, Dutch and French masker babble was tested to identify whether an unknown language masker improves speech segregation capacity and whether the rhythm patterns of the unknown language modulate the improvement. : Results indicated that a difference in pitch or speaking rate between target and masker improved speech segregation, but when both pitch and speaking rate differed, only a difference in pitch improved speech segregation. Results also indicated improved speech segregation for an unknown language masker, with little to no role of rhythm pattern of the unknown language. : This study increases the understanding of speech perception in a noisy ecologically valid context and suggests that there is a link between a cue's potential to denote a new speaker and its ability to aid in speech segregation during competing speech perception.
言语感知通常发生在其他言语或噪音的背景之下。本研究调查了在竞争性言语信号中分离言语流的有效性，检验诸如音高这类通常表示说话者差异的线索，其表现是否与诸如语速这类通常并不表示新说话者出现的线索相同。以英语为母语的人收听了处于具有相似或不同音高及/或相似或不同语速的英语双说话者嘈杂语音中的英语目标言语，以确定目标言语与掩蔽嘈杂语音之间不匹配的属性是否能改善言语分离。此外，还测试了荷兰语和法语的掩蔽嘈杂语音，以确定一种未知语言的掩蔽是否能提高言语分离能力，以及该未知语言的节奏模式是否会调节这种改善。结果表明，目标语音与掩蔽语音之间的音高或语速差异改善了言语分离，但当音高和语速都不同时，只有音高差异改善了言语分离。结果还表明，对于一种未知语言的掩蔽，言语分离得到了改善，而该未知语言的节奏模式几乎没有起到作用。本研究增进了对在嘈杂但生态有效的环境中言语感知的理解，并表明在竞争性言语感知过程中，一个线索表示新说话者的潜力与其帮助言语分离的能力之间存在联系。
