Phonemic restoration and its limitations

old_uid11874
titlePhonemic restoration and its limitations
start_date2012/11/26
schedule14h
onlineno
location_infoAmphi G2
detailsCRNL-CAP
summaryInaudible parts of speech can be perceptually restored with the help of linguistic knowledge, context, and expectations. This top-down repair mechanism, phonemic restoration, is considered to enhance speech intelligibility in noisy environments. Hearing-impaired listeners and users of cochlear implants commonly complain about not understanding speech in noise. In our research, we observe that hearing impairment and front-end processing of hearing aids and cochlear implants may reduce the benefit from restoration. Based on this observation, we hypothesize that the degradations in the bottom-up speech signals due to the hearing impairment or signal processing may have a negative effect on the top-down repair mechanism, which could partially be responsible for the complaints by this population. We test this hypothesis in a number of studies with either control groups of normal hearing (with or without simulations of hearing impairment) or with hearing-impaired participants. In this talk, I will present results from these studies. Overall findings from our laboratory imply that the degradations in the bottom-up signals alone (such as in hearing impairment) may reduce the top-down restoration of speech, even in the absence of cognitive deficits.
responsiblesBéranger, Rossetti