Native and Non-native Speech Perception by Hearing-Impaired Listeners in Noise- and Speech Maskers

Kilman, Lisa; Zekveld, Adriana; Hällgren, Mathias; Rönnberg, Jerker · 2015 · Crossref

DOI: 10.1177/2331216515579127

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Summary

This study investigates how hearing-impaired (HI) listeners perceive native (Swedish) and non-native (English) speech in the presence of various noise and speech maskers. The research addresses the complex interaction between hearing loss, language proficiency, and masker characteristics, a combination previously unexamined in a single study. The authors aimed to determine how energetic and informational masking affect speech reception thresholds (SRTs) and to identify which individual variables—such as pure-tone average (PTA), working memory, and English proficiency—predict performance in these challenging listening conditions. The study included 23 HI native Swedish speakers aged 28–65. Participants underwent audiometric testing and completed cognitive assessments, including working memory tests (Reading Span) in both Swedish and English, nonverbal reasoning tests (Raven’s Progressive Matrices), and a standardized English proficiency test. Speech perception was measured using the Hearing In Noise Test (HINT) with eight conditions: native or non-native target speech masked by stationary noise, fluctuating noise, Swedish two-talker babble, or English two-talker babble. SRTs were determined using an adaptive procedure targeting 50% sentence intelligibility. Results indicated that speech maskers (babble) were significantly more interfering than noise maskers for both target languages. For native Swedish speech, stationary noise was less interfering than fluctuating noise or babble. However, for non-native English speech, stationary and fluctuating noise were equally interfering, and both were significantly less interfering than babble. Performance was consistently worse for English than for Swedish. Better hearing acuity (lower PTA) correlated with better Swedish speech perception, while higher English proficiency correlated with better English speech perception. Notably, larger working memory capacity and better hearing acuity were specifically associated with improved perception of English speech masked by fluctuating noise, suggesting these factors are critical under highly taxing conditions. Significant variance in performance was observed, particularly for non-native speech. The findings highlight that informational masking from speech maskers poses a greater challenge than energetic masking from noise for HI listeners. The study demonstrates that non-native speech perception relies heavily on linguistic proficiency and cognitive resources, particularly working memory, when auditory cues are degraded. This supports the Ease of Language Understanding model, indicating that explicit cognitive processing becomes increasingly relevant when implicit auditory processing is insufficient. The results imply that interventions for HI listeners should consider both auditory rehabilitation and cognitive support, especially for those communicating in non-native languages.

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• auditory