Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research Vol.55 779-790 June 2012. doi:10.1044/1092-4388(2011/10-0342)
© American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrowCustom Print
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow My Folders
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Ferguson, S. H.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Ferguson, S. H.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Delicious   Add to Digg   Add to Facebook   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Article

Talker Differences in Clear and Conversational Speech: Vowel Intelligibility for Older Adults With Hearing Loss

Sarah Hargus Fergusona
a University of Kansas, Lawrence

Correspondence to Sarah Hargus Ferguson, who is now with the University of Utah: sarah.ferguson{at}hsc.utah.edu

Purpose: To establish the range of talker variability for vowel intelligibility in clear versus conversational speech for older adults with hearing loss and to determine whether talkers who produced a clear speech benefit for young listeners with normal hearing also did so for older adults with hearing loss.

Method: Clear and conversational vowels in /bVd/ context produced by 41 talkers were presented in noise for identification by 40 older (ages 65–87 years) adults with sloping sensorineural hearing loss.

Results: Vowel intelligibility within each speaking style and the size of the clear speech benefit varied widely among talkers. The clear speech benefit was equivalent to that enjoyed by young listeners with normal hearing in an earlier study. Most talkers who had produced a clear speech benefit for young listeners with normal hearing also did so for the older listeners with hearing loss in the present study. However, effects of talker gender differed between listeners with normal hearing and listeners with hearing loss.

Conclusion: The clear speech vowel intelligibility benefit generated for listeners with hearing loss varied considerably among talkers. Most talkers who produced a clear speech benefit for normal-hearing listeners also produced a benefit for listeners with hearing loss.

KEY WORDS: speech perception, hearing loss, communication strategies


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Delicious Delicious   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Facebook Facebook   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?