3 + 4: Acoustics of Speech and Speech Testing Flashcards
In general, what do people care about hearing most
Speech
What is the frequency range of the speech signal?
100-10,000 Hz
True or False: speech signals aren’t consistent from speaker to speaker, but each persons signal is consistent.
False, speech signals aren’t consistent, even from the same speaker
Most speech energy is located below ____ - _____ Hz primarily due to what two things?
500-1000 Hz
1) fundamental frequency of the voice
2) vowel formants
Why doesn’t the entire frequency range need to be understood?
Redundancy of speech
the phrase “those shoes” is an example of what? How?
Redundancy of speech, indicates a plural two times
What piece of technology doesn’t transmit the full frequency range?
Telephones
What is the widely accepted/produced range of frequencies for HAs?
200-6000 Hz
Why don’t HAs typically need to have the full frequency range?
In most HA users the upper frequencies that are emitted are useless to them anyways due to advanced damage to the basal end of the cochlea
Intensity changes of the speech signal are depended on ___________ of the ______ vs. the _________
Frequencies
Vowels
Consonants
Vowels have _______ frequencies and consonants have ________ frequencies
Lower
Higher
What is the range of intensities of a speech signal, from shouting to whispering?
Shouting = 65 dB HL (85 dB SPL) Whispering = 25 dB HL (45 dB SPL)
There are rapid ________ changes over time in the speech signal
Intensity
The dynamic range of the speech signal is ____ dB
40 dB
We have averages for conversational speech signals, but what are two factors that might change those numbers?
1) male vs. female
2) environmental/situational changes
On the long-term speech spectrum above ____ Hz, the spectrum envelope decreases ___ dB/octave
500 Hz
9 dB
Why is the sloping nature of the long-term speech spectrum problematic?
The sounds produced at lower levels, which are mainly consonants that contain the majority of speech information, are the ones that also are the most affected by the majority of hearing losses
What are the two short-term speech characteristics?
1) segmental frequency information
2) vowels
What part of speech in the primary energy source?
Vowels
Where is vowel energy contained?
Formants
What are formants?
Resonant frequencies of the vocal tract
All vowels have an F1 below ______ Hz
1000
Several vowels have similar ___ which can be confusing if ___ is not _______
F1
F2
Audible
Positive vowel identification of all vowels requires hearing up to at least ______-______ Hz
2500-3000 Hz
_______ contain the intelligibility for speech but dont contain the power that ______ do
Consonants
Vowels
The frequency range of 62-1000 Hz has ___% of the power, but __% of intelligibility
95, 5
The frequency range 1000-8000 Hz has __% of the power, but ___% of intelligibility
5, 95
HI individuals use the same ______ ___ to speech perception as everyone else, so there is __ _________ if they can’t access them.
Acoustic cues
No substitute
The highest statistical correlation is found between pure-tone thresholds and an individuals speech perception ability as _____ Hz
2000
Patients with limited high frequency hearing will have difficulty making _____ distinctions
Place
Place of articulation is most susceptible to the effects of __________ hearing loss
Sensorineural
Place of articulation with losses ______ than ___ dB HL even with ___________
Greater
90
Amplification
Patients with low frequency hearing loss should have no trouble with ________ distinctions when they have proper _________
Voicing
Amplification
Perception of voicing, manner, and prosody is possibly for persons with losses greater than ___ dB with ___________
90
Amplification
The overall intensity at which people speak varies as a function of the ________ _____
Background noise
People speak at ___ dB SPL for noise levels up to 45 dB SPL
55
Favorable speech noise ratio of +/- ___ will exist
+10
Individuals with HL will do well at _____ SNR if the speech spectrum is made audible with HAs
+10
What does + 10 SNR mean?
the signal is 10 dB greater than the noise
What SNR do humans usually speak at up to noise at what dB SPL?
+10 SNR
45 dB SPL
As SNR (decreases/increases) difficulty (decreases/increases)
Decreases
Increases
When background noise becomes more _____, talkers _____ thier voices _________
Intense
Raise their voices disproportionately
In what type of quiet environment are ____ to _________ losses with aids able to have little difficulty?
Mild to moderate
+10 SNR
When background noise is ___ avg speech is what in dB and what SNR?.
- 55 dB
- 65 dB
- 75 dB
- 61 dB (+6)
- 68 dB (+3)
- 0 or worse SNR
The amount of reflection of sound is dependent upon ____ and _________ of surfaces
Size
Absorption
What is the definition of reverberation time?
Time it takes for the SPL to decrease 60 dB after a steady-state sounds tops
A longer RT means more ____
Echo
Too much reverberation can do what to speech?
Make it less intelligible
How does reverberation make speech less intelligible?
Reflections “time smearing” the speech pattern
More soft or absorbent surfaces mean a _____ or ______ RT
Lower
Better
Is a gym a good or bad listening environment and why?
Bad, very reverberant, not a lot of soft or absorbent surfaces
What are the 5 abilities that normally hearing people have that allow them to understand speech in adverse conditions?
1) discriminate small changes in intensity, frequency, and timing
2) separate the frequency components
3) hear speech at normal loudness levels
4) integrate sound energy over time
5) localize the source
Even with amp, what are 4 factors that deprive a hearing impaired listener of acoustic cues?
1) upward spread of masking
2) temporal masking
3) tolerance problems
4) discrimination ability
HL is not just a loss of sensitivity!
THIS WAS JUST A PSA!
Pure tone audiogram cannot predict what?
The degree of communication deficit caused by a hearing loss
What is the most important signal we hear?
Speech
Two people with the same audiogram may have very different what?
Speech perception abilities
The greatest complaints with HL are about what?
Inability to hear/understand speech
What test gives a better real world view of a clients communication performance?
Speech audiometry
Which audiometry can be more sensitive to auditory problems?
Speech (over pure tone)
Speech audiometry can be an _______ check of pure-tone results
Accuracy
Sometimes _____ _________ may be the only way to assess auditory function. Give examples.
Speech audiometry
Children, cognitive disabilities, etc.
Results from speech audiometry can help plan what?
Intervention and counseling strategies
Functional hearing test results can help answer what 4 questions?
1) how clear is conversational speech
2) what level is required for audibility and intelligibility?
3) which sounds are inaudible in which conditions?
4) which sounds are audible with amplification?
What are not great tools for explaining HL to patients/families/laypeople?
Regular audiograms
What are 11 benefits of speech testing?
1) determine need for amp
2) compare aided and unaided listening
3) compare devices
4) demonstrate the hearing problem
5) demonstrate benefits of visual speech cues
6) demonstrate background noise effects
7) assess longitudinal performance
8) determine need for auditory/speechreading training
9) determine placement with training curriculum
10) evaluate appropriate educational placement
11) determine if desired benefit is achieved
What are the 4 levels of auditory processing?
1) detection/awareness
2) discrimination
3) recognition/identification
4) comprehension
Which level of auditory processing is determining the presence or absence of sound?
1) detection/awareness
Which level of auditory processing is hearing the change in physical attribute of a sound?
2) discrimination
Which level of auditory processing is attaching a label to the stimulus?
3) recognition/identification
Which level of auditory processing is attaching meaning to the stimulus?
4) Comprehension
Traditional pure tone audiometry looks only at which level of auditory processing?
1) detection
Which 2 routine speech tests are designed to look at recognition?
1) SRT
2) WRS
Two people with the same audiogram usually have differing ____ _________ capabilities, which means they may have different __________ and __________ plans
Speech processing
Diagnoses
Rehab plans
To do speech testing you need to know that the client will ___ and ________ the ____ they will be testing with, so when selecting testing material consider at least these 4 factors:
Know and understand Words 1) age 2) purpose of eval 3) recent brain injury? 4) non-native speaker?
In speech testing the client is expected to give some _______ to the speech stimuli, such as one of the following 3:
Response
1) verbal (repeat words)
2) written
3) gestural (point at a picture)
How does the clinician determine what the most appropriate method of testing is?
Determine the clients verbal abilities
Thresholds for speech helps to determine the degree of _________ _____ for ______
Hearing loss
Speech
A clients pure tone thresholds can be compared to what to help confirm it?n
Speech thresholds
What is the speech detection threshold?
The minimum hearing level for speech at which an individual can just discern the presence of speech material 50% of the time
The speech detection threshold is also called:
Speech awareness threshold (SAT)
Is a speech detection threshold part of a standard audio metric battery?
No, it sometimes has to be used if the client cant repeat speech/point to pictures
What information does a speech detection threshold test give us and not give us?
It gives us knowledge of whether a client is aware of speech, but not if they comprehend it
Is a speech reception threshold test used regularly or not?
Used regularly
What is the purpose of speech threshold testing?
To quantify an individuals hearing threshold level for speech and verify the pure tone audiogram
A persons speech reception threshold should general be within ___ dB of their PTA, or in sloping/rising loses the SRT will more closely correspond to a __ frequency ______ using the best of ____, ______, and ______ Hz
10
2
500, 1000, 2000
Disagreement between the SRT and PTA is an indicator of what 5 possible things?
1) pseudohypacusis (malingering)
2) equipment malfunction
3) misunderstanding of instructions
4) development level of client
5) presence of a higher level cognitive and/or language disorder
What is a spondee?
A 2 syllable word with equal stress
What are 3 reasons we use sponsees in speech testing?
1) easy to recognize
2) can be guessed with great accuracy and with only a little audible acoustic info present
3) highly redundant
What 4 criteria do sponsees selected for speech testing need to meet?
1) familiarity
2) phonetic dissimilarity
3) normal sampling of English speech sounds
4) homogeneity with respect to basic audibility
Spondees used for children are all easily ________
Pictured
Word recognition testing is designed to evaluate what?
A clients understanding of speech stimuli
Word Recognition Score has replaced what previous test? Why?
Speech discrimination score
It’s not a speech discrimination test
Speech testing must be what two things?
1) valid
2) reliable
What is Validity?
Measures what it is supposed to
What is reliability?
When a test is repeated it yields the same/similar results
The WRS helps determine extent of ____-________ difficulty, and aids in diagnosis of ____ of ________ and need for/selection of ______________ ________, and helps o predict _________ after ___
Word-recognition
Site of lesion
Amplification systems
Prognosis after AR
During WRS patients are presented with _____________ stimuli to reveal clients ability to distinguish subtle ________ cues in words
Monosyllabic
Acoustic
WRS includes ___ (of half list of ___) words, presented at ___-___ dB SL above the patients ____
50 (25)
30-40 dB SPL
SRT
Monitored live voice versus recorded voice: intelligibility is affected by what 2 things?
1) presentation style of different speakers
2) intra-talker variability
What are the 2 main categories of speech style?
1) conversational style
2) clear speech
Which has increased variability, MLV or recorded speech?
MLV
How should WRS be tested?
In adverse situations, aka in noise
Hearing impaired individuals have a _________ loss plus a ______/_____ _____ loss, and need about __ dB more to achieve 50% correct performance level in babble
Sensitivity
Signal/noise ratio
8
Sentence tests are usually done in _____, not ____
Noise
Quiet
What are 3 advantages of sentence testing
1) can test multiple target words faster
2) helps maintain natural speech presentation
3) suprasegmental speech aspects are maintained
What are 2 disadvantages of sentence tests?
1) requires higher level cognitive skills
2) working memory
Speech audiometry helps in ___________ diagnosis
Differential
Speech audiometry can recognize a specific ________ or the ____ of _______
Pathology
Site of legion
Speech audiometry is done at various ________ levels to look for _______
Intensity
Rollover
A clients ______ ___________ can be compared to others with similar hearing loss
Speech audiometry
Speech audiometry can be used to compare performance between ____
Ears
Speech audiometry is useful for hearing aid fittings because we need to know how much of the _____ spectrum will “___” in the users _______ _____
Speech
Fit
Dynamic range
We can do live ____-______ with modern hearing aid analyzing systems to document increases in _________ with the _______ ____ __
Speech-mapping
Audibility
Hearing aids in
Current speech tests are not always sensitive to differences that what can make in what?
Modern hearing aids
Speech perception
___ testing doesn’t show differences in ____ versus ____ ________ ___, but it should show in ____ testing
WRS
Old vs. new hearing aids
SRT
What are the 7 sounds in the ling tests?
1) /m/
2) /u/
3) /o/
4) /a/
5) /i/
6) /sh/
7) /s/
The ling test is a speech __________ task
Detection
What is the main use of the ling test?
Hearing aid function check
The ling test is _______ spoken to a child at a normal ___________ level, and then the child is asked to respond with what?
Phonemes
Conversational
Whether they heard the phoneme or not
Is the ling test standardized?
No, just an informal check
