Children’s ability to benefit from fundamental frequency and vocal tract length differences during speech-in-speech recognition

The present study evaluated whether children’s speech-in-speech recognition benefits from differences in fundamental frequency (F0) or vocal tract length (VTL) between the target and masker talkers’ voices. Children, like adults, can benefit from a sex mismatch between competing talkers, but the relative contribution of individual voice characteristics to children’s improved speech-in-speech understanding is unknown. In this study, we first tested children’s ability to use differences in either F0 or VTL between target and masker speech to evaluate the independent influence of these cues on speech-in-speech recognition. Then F0 and VTL differences were combined to determine whether cue redundancy would reduce the child/adult differences observed in these contexts. Sentence recognition thresholds were measured in a two-talker speech masker. All stimuli were recorded by the same female talker. F0 and VTL of the target sentences were manipulated using the pitch-synchronous overlap-add method. Preliminary results suggest a prolonged developmental trajectory in the ability to use F0 or VTL in isolation, but indicate that the combination of these cues benefits children at an earlier age compared to when either cue is presented in isolation. Adults showed the greatest benefit from the F0-only manipulation, showing no additional benefit when F0 and VTL were combined.