噪音背景下老龄化对汉语语音感知的影响

Aging Effect on Mandarin Speech Perception in Noisy Environment

本文旨在讨论噪音背景下老龄化对汉语元音和声调感知的影响。本研究考察安静、语音型噪音、语音调制型噪音以及信噪比为-4和-8dB条件下,老年人和年轻人对汉语元音+声调、元音和声调的语音感知表现。结果表明,老龄化对汉语语音的感知有显著影响:噪音对老年人的影响更大,他们和年轻人的差距进一步拉大;同时,语音型噪音带来的能量掩蔽和信息掩蔽对老年人的影响也都大于年轻人。

The purpose of the current study was to examine aging effect on the perception of Chinese vowels and tones in noisy environment. Identification tests of the Mandarin vowels and tones by the older and younger listeners were conducted in quiet environment,babble-modulated noisy environment,and two-talker babble environment with the signal-to-noise ratios of -4 and -8 dB. The results suggested that aging had a detrimental effect on Mandarin vowel and tone perception. Greater noise interferences were observed for the older listeners than for the younger listeners. Meanwhile,the current study also suggested that both energetic masking and informational masking of babble noise had significantly more negative impacts on the older listeners than their younger counterparts.