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10/26/2019  |   9:00 AM - 10:00 AM   |  Ventana Ballroom B

A Non-Linguistic Test of Speech Discrimination

Although speech understanding is routinely measured in some countries, there has been little development of speech tests in many languages. The effort required to make tests of speech understanding accessible to the world population is prohibitive. A non-linguistic test would make an assessment of speech processing possible for speakers of any language. The first stage of speech processing is the spectrotemporal analysis performed by the auditory periphery. As audiologists we are most concerned with peripheral disturbances. An assessment of spectrotemporal analysis may be a valid proxy for speech recognition testing of patients with sensorineural hearing loss. Studies of spectrotemporal processing with non-linguistic complex stimuli suggest a correlation with word recognition scores. We have created stimuli that are more closely related to speech. Stimuli were derived from word recordings by a process that removed the linguistic content. The stimuli sound like speech but are not recognizable as words or syllables. A compressive non-linearity changed the quality of the stimulus without changing its frequency spectrum. By manipulating the compression, the similarity to the uncompressed stimulus could be controlled, making the contrast easier or more difficult to detect. Word recordings were subjected to this process. The subjects’ task was to identify which of four stimuli was different from the other three. Young normal-hearing subjects and older subjects (aged 60 – 73 years) were tested. Performance was measured for four degrees of compression. Scores for the young subjects ranged from near chance to near 100%. Scores for older subjects were diminished with non-overlapping scores at one distortion level. This condition was chosen to construct a clinical test. The clinical test consists of twenty-four items, six “words”, each repeated four times. Results on young and older normal listeners and subjects with sensorineural hearing loss will be presented.

• 1. The learner will understand the role of spectrotemporal processing in speech understanding.
• 2. The learner will understand the process of removing linguistic content from speech stimuli.

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Robert Margolis (POC,Primary Presenter), Audiology Incorporated, rhmargo001@gmail.com;
Robert Margolis is Emeritus Professor at the University of Minnesota, Adjunct Professor at Arizona State University, and President of Audiology Incorporated. His research career has focused on diagnostic audiology, most recently on development and validation of automated hearing tests. He has participated in audiology service projects in Chile, India, and Mexico.

ASHA DISCLOSURE: Financial - Receives Intellectual property rights,Royalty options or other ownership interest,Hold patent on equipment for Consulting from Grason Stadler Inc..   Receives Intellectual property rights,Royalty options or other ownership interest for Consulting from Grason Stadler Inc..   Nonfinancial - No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.

AAA DISCLOSURE: Financial - Receives support from Grason Stadler, Inc..

Aparna Rao (Author,Co-Author), Arizona State University, Aparna.Rao.1@asu.edu;
Aparna Rao is Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Speech and Hearing Science at Arizona State University. Her research has focused on physiologic measures of hearing, behavioral assessment, and self-reported measures. She developed one of the early hospital-based newborn hearing screening programs in Minnesota.

ASHA DISCLOSURE: Financial - Nonfinancial -

AAA DISCLOSURE: Financial - No relevant financial relationship exists.

Richard Wilson (Author,Co-Author), Arizona State University, wilsonr1943@gmail.com;
Richard Wilson is a retired Senior Research Career Scientist from the Department of Veterans Affairs and currently an Adjunct Professor at Arizona State University. His research focuses on speech perception abilities of individuals with sensorineural hearing loss.

ASHA DISCLOSURE: Financial - Nonfinancial -

AAA DISCLOSURE: Financial - No relevant financial relationship exists.