Stop‐consonant recognition for normal‐hearing listeners and listeners with high‐frequency hearing loss. I: The contribution of selected frequency regions

The purpose of this study is to specify the contribution of certain frequency regions to consonant place perception for normal‐hearing listeners and listeners with high‐frequency hearing loss, and to characterize the differences in stop‐consonant place perception among these listeners. Stop‐consonant recognition and error patterns were examined at various speech‐presentation levels and under conditions of low‐ and high‐pass filtering. Subjects included 18 normal‐hearing listeners and a homogeneous group of 10 young, hearing‐impaired individuals with high‐frequency sensorineural hearing loss. Differential filtering effects on consonant place perception were consistent with the spectral composition of acoustic cues. Differences in consonant recognition and error patterns between normal‐hearing and hearing‐impaired listeners were observed when the stimulus bandwidth included regions of threshold elevation for the hearing‐impaired listeners. Thus place‐perception differences among listeners are, for the most part, associated with stimulus bandwidths corresponding to regions of hearing loss.