Communication Sciences and Disorders Commons^™

Effects Of Masking Noise On Vowel And Sibilant Contrasts In Normal-Hearing Speakers And Postlingually Deafened Cochlear Implant Users, Joseph Perkell, Margaret Denny, Harlan Lane, Frank Guenther, Melanie Matthies, Mark Tiede, Jennell Vick, Majid Zandipour, Ellen Burton

Harlan Lane

The role of auditory feedback in speech production was investigated by examining speakers' phonemic contrasts produced under increases in the noise to signal ratio (N/S). Seven cochlear implant users and seven normal-hearing controls pronounced utterances containing the vowels /i/, /u/, /ε/ and /æ/ and the sibilants /s/ and /ʃ/ while hearing their speech mixed with noise at seven equally spaced levels between their thresholds of detection and discomfort. Speakers' average vowel duration and SPL generally rose with increasing N/S. Average vowel contrast was initially flat or rising; at higher N/S levels, it fell. A contrast increase is interpreted as reflecting …