Vocoded speech perception with simulated shallow insertion depths in adults and children

Abstract

It is unclear how adults and children differ in their ability to learn distorted speech signals. Normal-hearing adults (≥18 years) and children (8–10 years) were repeatedly tested on vocoded speech perception with 0-, 3-, and 6-mm of frequency-to-place mismatch (i.e., shift). Between testing blocks, listeners were provided training blocks with feedback on the 6-mm shift condition. Adults performed better than children at 0-mm shift, but performed similarly at 3- and 6-mm shifts. Therefore, differences between adults and children in vocoded speech perception are dependent on the degree of distortion, and this difference seems unaltered by training with feedback.