Confusion of Danish consonants in white noise
Abstract
Several classical studies have investigated how the perception of consonants is affected by interfering noise. The present study is aimed at developing a consonant confusion test, considering fifteen frequently used Danish consonants presented in initial position in combination with the vowels [æ], [i] and [u] and spoken by ten speakers. Consonant recognition was measured in the presence of a white-noise masker at a number of signal-to- noise ratios. The presented data were obtained in eight normal-hearing listeners. The results were analyzed in terms of recognition rates and formation of confusion groups. It was hypothesized that the confusion groups are similar to those found in English, but that consonants that are common in Danish would fall into specific groups. The results showed that there iss a large asymmetry in the confusions, and that the confusion groups are not as clear as in other languages. Additionally, this study introduces the “wheel of confusions” (WoC) which is a new graphical representation of consonant confusion data. The results will be used as reference data in on- going studies on consonant perception in listeners with hearing impairment and will address the individuality of consonant perception with and without hearing instruments.
References
Allen, J. B. and Han, W. (2011), “Sources of decoding errors of the perceptual cues, in normal and hearing impaired ears”, Proc. Intl. Symposium on Auditory and Audiological Research, Denmark.
Jepsen, M. L., Dau, T. and Ghitza, O. (2011), „Characterizing peripheral hearing impairment: beyond non-speech psychophysics”, J. Acoust. Soc. Am., accepted
Miller, G. and Nicely, P. (1955), “An analysis of perceptual confusions among some English consonants”, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 27, 338-352
Phatak, S. A. And Allen, J. B. (2007), “Consonant and vowel confusions in speech- weighted noise”, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 121, 2312-2326
Phatak, S. A., Lovitt, A. and Allen, J.B. (2008), “Consonant confusions in white noise”, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 124, 1220-1233
Phatak, S. A., Yoon, Y., Gooler, D. A. and Allen, J. B. (2009), “Consonant recognition loss in hearing impaired listeners”, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 126, 2683- 2694
Régnier, M. And Allen, J. B. (2008), “A method to identify noise-robust perceptual features: Application for consonant /t/”, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 123, 2801-2814
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