Open AccessChildren With Normal Hearing Are Efficient Users of Fundamental Frequency and Vocal Tract Length Cues for Voice Discrimination
Author(s) -
Yael Zaltz,
Raymond L. Goldsworthy,
Laurie S. Eisenberg,
Liat KishonRabin
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
ear and hearing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.577
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1538-4667
pISSN - 0196-0202
DOI - 10.1097/aud.0000000000000743
Subject(s) - audiology , vocal tract , psychology , formant , cognition , speech perception , perception , speech recognition , vowel , computer science , medicine , neuroscience
The ability to discriminate between talkers assists listeners in understanding speech in a multitalker environment. This ability has been shown to be influenced by sensory processing of vocal acoustic cues, such as fundamental frequency (F0) and formant frequencies that reflect the listener's vocal tract length (VTL), and by cognitive processes, such as attention and memory. It is, therefore, suggested that children who exhibit immature sensory and/or cognitive processing will demonstrate poor voice discrimination (VD) compared with young adults. Moreover, greater difficulties in VD may be associated with spectral degradation as in children with cochlear implants.