Speech recognition by the elderly: test proposal concerning word predictability (original) (raw)
Related papers
Speech Understanding in the Elderly
Ear and Hearing, 1989
Three basic hypotheses regarding the speech-understanding difficulties of the elderly are reviewed : the peripheral, central-auditory, and cognitive hypotheses. Evidence obtained in our laboratory and in others is reviewed regarding the viability of each hypothesis . It is concluded that the strongest support exists for the peripheral hypothesis . Specifically, individual variations in the amount of sensorineural hearing loss among the elderly are most responsible for individual variations in speech-understanding performance. ("Speech understanding" is used throughout this article as a general term for the proportion of a speech signal that is accurately perceived by a listener whether in a discrimination, identification, recognition, or comprehension paradigm .) The focus to date, however, has been placed on monaural speech understanding measured in quiet, noise, or reverberation . It is possible that a more complex picture may yet emerge for other forms of temporally distorted speech or for dichotic measures of speech understanding.
The use of speech audiometry in the practice of the geriatric center
Advances in gerontology, 2017
The aim of the study was to evaluate a new test of speech audiometry while examining aged patients. Thirty-two aged listeners from 60 to 88 years old were examined: 20 hearing aid (HA) users and 12 patients with normal hearing thresholds and mild cognitive impairment according to the results of the minimental state examination (MMSE). The speech audiometry consisted of the traditional polysyllabic word discrimination test and a new speech test with motor responses (Verbal Tasks and Motor Responses-VTMR); in both tests the speech signal was presented in background noise (polyphony) in free field. All listeners performed the VTMR test significantly better than the polysyllabic word discrimination test. In the group of hearingimpaired patients the mean result in the VTMR test was 73.2 ± 29.2% without a HA and 88.6 ± 20.5% with it; in the traditional test, 34.8 ± 20.9% without a HA and 56.0 ± 18.4% with it. All patients of the group with normal hearing and mild cognitive impairment performed the VTMR test with a 100% result, their speech discrimination score in traditional test was 88.0 ± 12.0%. In the practice of the geriatric center the use of both traditional speech audiometry and the new speech test with motor responses seems to be reasonable. It allows examining the auditory function in patients with significant deterioration of speech intelligibility or cognitive impairment.
Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 1994
In the present study, the speech-recognition performance of 50 subjects aged 63 to 83 years was measured for a wide range of materials (nonsense syllables, monosyllabic words, sentences) and listening conditions (presentation levels of 70 and 90 dB SPL, both in quiet and in a noise background). In addition to complete audiologic evaluations, measures of auditory processing (the Test of Basic Auditory Capabilities [TBAC], Watson, 1987) and cognitive function (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised [WAIS-R], and the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised [WMS-R], were obtained from all subjects. Principal component analyses were applied to each of the three sets of measures (speech-recognition, auditory, and cognitive) prior to examining associations among the sets using canonical analyses. Two principal components captured most of the systematic variation in performance sampled by the set of 20 speech-recognition measures. Hearing loss emerged as the single largest factor associated with individual differences in speech-recognition performance among the elderly, accounting for 70-75% of the total variance in speech-recognition performance, with the measures of auditory processing and cognitive function accounting for little or no additional variance.
The purpose of this article is to assess speech processing for listeners with simulated age-related hearing loss (ARHL) and to investigate whether the observed performance can be replicated using an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system. The long-term goal of this research is to develop a system that will assist audiologists/ hearing-aid dispensers in the fine-tuning of hearing aids. Method: Sixty young participants with normal hearing listened to speech materials mimicking the perceptual consequences of ARHL at different levels of severity. Two intelligibility tests (repetition of words and sentences) and 1 comprehension test (responding to oral commands by moving virtual objects) were administered. Several language models were developed and used by the ASR system in order to fit human performances. Results: Strong significant positive correlations were observed between human and ASR scores, with coefficients up to .99. However, the spectral smearing used to simulate losses in frequency selectivity caused larger declines in ASR performance than in human performance. Conclusion: Both intelligibility and comprehension scores for listeners with simulated ARHL are highly correlated with the performances of an ASR-based system. In the future, it needs to be determined if the ASR system is similarly successful in predicting speech processing in noise and by older people with ARHL.
Speech Perception and Information-Carrying Capacity for Hearing Aid Users of Different Ages
Audiology & neuro-otology, 2016
Hearing impairment in the elderly is usually treated with conventional hearing aids; however, a large number of older people do not achieve sufficient speech recognition with hearing aids. The aim of the study was to describe speech perception with hearing aids in comparison to pure-tone hearing loss and maximum speech recognition scores for phonemically balanced words. Data from 392 hearing aid users with different degrees of hearing loss were evaluated retrospectively. In particular, pure-tone thresholds, the maximum monosyllabic word score, and the monosyllabic word score in quiet at conversational level with a hearing aid were analysed. The results showed that speech perception scores decline with increasing age. Even when corrected for pure-tone hearing loss, a significant decline in speech recognition scores after the age of 80 years was observed. Regarding the maximum monosyllabic word score, the effect is smaller but still observable; thus, speech recognition with hearing ai...
Selected cognitive factors and speech recognition performance among young and elderly listeners
Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR, 1997
The influence of selected cognitive factors on age-related changes in speech recognition was examined by measuring the effects of recall task, speech rate, and availability of contextual cues on recognition performance by young and elderly listeners. Stimuli were low and high context sentences from the R-SPIN test presented at normal and slowed speech rates in noise. Response modes were final word recall and sentence recall. The effects of hearing loss and age were examined by comparing performances of young and elderly listeners with normal hearing and young and elderly listeners with hearing loss. Listeners with hearing loss performed more poorly than listeners with normal hearing in nearly every condition. In addition, elderly listeners exhibited poorer performance than younger listeners on the sentence recall task, but not on the word recall task, indicating that added memory demands have a detrimental effect on elderly listeners' performance. Slowing of speech rate did not ...
Speech as a means of monitoring cognitive function of elderly speakers
2008
This study investigates the use of speech as an indicator of the onset of cognitive decline in the elderly. The analysis found features that correlate with the results of a clinical measure of cognitive function. Using a combination of temporal language features, such as pause and utterance duration, 76% classification accuracy was achieved. While no significant results were found for ASR experiments, vowel duration, on average, increased by 17% for subjects with cognitive impairment compared to those without. The results from this study introduce the concept of longitudinal studies into aging using speech as a window into cognitive function.
Journal of speech and hearing research, 1991
This study examined the performance of four subject groups on several temporally based measures of auditory processing and several measures of speech identification. The four subjects groups were (a) young normal-hearing adults; (b)-hearing-impaired elderly subjects ranging in age from 65 to 75 years; (c) hearing-impaired elderly adults ranging in age from 76 to 86 years; and (d) young normal-hearing listeners with hearing loss simulated with a spectrally shaped masking noise adjusted to match the actual hearing loss of the two elderly groups. In addition to between-group analyses of performance on the auditory processing and speech identification tasks, correlational and regression analyses within the two groups of elderly hearing-impaired listeners were performed. The results revealed that the threshold elevation accompanying sensorineural hearing loss was the primary factor affecting the speech identification performance of the hearing-impaired elderly subjects both as groups and...
Ear and Hearing, 1991
A battery of speech audiometric measures and a battery of neuropsychological measures were administered to 200 elderly individuals with varying degrees of pure-tone sensitivity loss. Results were analyzed from the standpoint of the extent to which variation in speech audiometric scores could be predicted by knowledge of pure-tone hearing level, age, and cognitive status. For the four monotic test procedures (PB, SPIN-Low, SPIN-High, and SSI) degree of hearing loss bore the strongest relation to speech recognition score. Cognitive status accounted for little of the variance in any of these four speech audiometric scores. In the case of the single dichotic test procedure (DSI), both degree of hearing loss and speed of mental processing, as measured by the Digit Symbol subtest of the WAIS-R, accounted for significant variance. Finally, age accounted for significant unique variance only in the SSI score. (Ear Hear 12 2:103-109)