Masked speech recognition and reading in children (Miller et al., 2018)

Purpose: The relationship between reading (decoding) skills, phonological processing abilities, and masked speech recognition in typically developing children was explored. This experiment was designed to evaluate the relationship between phonological processing and decoding abilities and 2 aspects of masked speech recognition in typically developing children: (a) the ability to benefit from temporal and spectral modulations within a noise masker and (b) the masking exerted by a speech masker.Method: Forty-two typically developing 3rd- and 4th-grade children with normal hearing, ranging in age from 8;10 to 10;6 years (mean age = 9;2 years, SD = 0.5 months), completed sentence recognition testing in 4 different maskers: steady-state noise, temporally modulated noise, spectrally modulated noise, and two-talker speech. Children also underwent assessment of phonological processing abilities and assessments of single-word decoding. As a comparison group, 15 adults with normal hearing also completed speech-in-noise testing.Results: Speech recognition thresholds varied between approximately 3 and 7 dB across children, depending on the masker condition. Compared to adults, performance in the 2-talker masker was relatively consistent across children. Furthermore, decreasing the signal-to-noise ratio had a more precipitously deleterious effect on children’s speech recognition in the 2-talker masker than was observed for adults. For children, individual differences in speech recognition threshold were not predicted by phonological awareness or decoding ability in any masker condition.Conclusions: No relationship was found between phonological awareness and/or decoding ability and a child’s ability to benefit from spectral or temporal modulations. In addition, phonological awareness and/or decoding ability was not related to speech recognition in a 2-talker masker. Last, these data suggest that the between-listeners variability often observed in 2-talker maskers for adults may be smaller for children. The reasons for this child–adult difference need to be further explored.Supplemental Material S1. Phonological processing/reading measures: children (ordering of data is consistent across Supplemental Materials S2 and S4). Supplemental Material S2. Masker condition signal recognition thresholds (SRTs, dB SNR) in children (ordering of data is consistent across Supplemental Materials S1 and S4). Supplemental Material S3. Masker condition signal recognition thresholds (SRTs, dB SNR) in adults (ordering of data is consistent with Supplemental Material S5). Supplemental Material S4. Masker condition signal recognition slopes in children (ordering of data is consistent across Supplemental Materials S1 and S2). Supplemental Material S5. Masker condition signal recognition slopes in adults (ordering of data is consistent with Supplemental Material S3). Supplemental Material S6. Least-squares (LS) means estimates of masker condition signal recognition thresholds (SRTs) in adults and children. Supplemental Material S7. Least-squares (LS) means estimates of masker condition signal recognition slopes in adults and children. Supplemental Material S8. Two-talker masker speech recognition threshold (SRT) regression results: children. Supplemental Material S9. Spectral modulation benefit regression results: children.Supplemental Material S10. Amplitude modulation benefit regression results: children.Supplemental Material S11. Steady-state noise slope regression results: children. Miller, G., Lewis, B., Benchek, P., Buss, E., & Calandruccio, L. (2018). Masked speech recognition and reading ability in school-age children: Is there a relationship? Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 61, 776–788. https://doi.org/10.1044/2017_JSLHR-H-17-0279

研究目的：本实验旨在探讨在正常发育儿童中阅读（解码）技能、语音处理能力与掩蔽语音识别之间的关系。实验旨在评估语音处理能力与解码能力与正常发育儿童掩蔽语音识别的两个方面之间的关系：（a）在噪声掩蔽器中受益于时间和频率调制的能力；（b）语音掩蔽器产生的掩蔽效应。研究方法：选取了42名听力正常的3至4年级儿童，年龄范围在8岁10个月至10岁6个月之间（平均年龄为9岁2个月，标准差为0.5个月），在4种不同的掩蔽器中进行句子识别测试：稳态噪声、时间调制噪声、频率调制噪声和双说话者语音。儿童还接受了语音处理能力的评估和单词解码能力的评估。作为对照组，15名听力正常的成年人也完成了语音在噪声中的测试。研究结果：儿童的语音识别阈值在掩蔽器条件下约为3至7分贝之间变化。与成年人相比，儿童在双说话者掩蔽器中的表现相对一致。此外，降低信噪比对儿童在双说话者掩蔽器中的语音识别的影响比成年人更为显著。对于儿童来说，在任何掩蔽器条件下，语音识别阈值的个体差异不能由语音意识或解码能力所预测。结论：未发现语音意识与/或解码能力与儿童从频谱或时间调制中受益的能力之间存在关联。此外，语音意识与/或解码能力与双说话者掩蔽器中的语音识别无关。最后，这些数据表明，成年人在双说话者掩蔽器中通常观察到的听者间差异可能对儿童来说较小。需要进一步探索造成这种儿童与成人差异的原因。补充材料S1：语音处理/阅读度量：儿童（数据排序与补充材料S2和S4一致）。补充材料S2：儿童掩蔽器条件信号识别阈值（SRT，dB SNR）的排序与补充材料S1和S4一致。补充材料S3：成人掩蔽器条件信号识别阈值（SRT，dB SNR）的排序与补充材料S5一致。补充材料S4：儿童掩蔽器条件信号识别斜率的数据排序与补充材料S1和S2一致。补充材料S5：成人掩蔽器条件信号识别斜率的数据排序与补充材料S3一致。补充材料S6：成人和儿童掩蔽器条件信号识别阈值（SRT）的最小二乘（LS）均值估计。补充材料S7：成人和儿童掩蔽器条件信号识别斜率的最小二乘（LS）均值估计。补充材料S8：儿童双说话者掩蔽器语音识别阈值（SRT）回归结果。补充材料S9：儿童频谱调制益处回归结果。补充材料S10：儿童振幅调制益处回归结果。补充材料S11：儿童稳态噪声斜率回归结果。Miller, G., Lewis, B., Benchek, P., Buss, E., & Calandruccio, L. (2018). 青少年儿童的掩蔽语音识别与阅读能力：是否存在关联？《言语、语言和听力研究杂志》，61，776–788。https://doi.org/10.1044/2017_JSLHR-H-17-0279