Development of speech glimpsing in synchronously and asynchronously modulated noise

This study investigated development of the ability to integrate glimpses of speech in modulated noise. Noise was modulated synchronously across frequency or asynchronously such that when noise below 1300 Hz was “off,” noise above 1300 Hz was “on,” and vice versa. Asynchronous masking was used to examine the ability of listeners to integrate speech glimpses separated across time and frequency. The study used the Word Intelligibility by Picture Identification (WIPI) test and included adults, older children (age 8–10 yr) and younger children (5–7 yr). Results showed poorer masking release for the children than the adults for synchronous modulation but not for asynchronous modulation. It is possible that children can integrate cues relatively well when all intervals provide at least partial speech information (asynchronous modulation) but less well when some intervals provide little or no information (synchronous modulation). Control conditions indicated that children appeared to derive less benefit than adults from speech cues below 1300 Hz. This frequency effect was supported by supplementary conditions where the noise was unmodulated and the speech was low- or high-pass filtered. Possible sources of the developmental frequency effect include differences in frequency weighting, effective speech bandwidth, and the signal-to-noise ratio in the unmodulated noise condition.