Effects of training on speech recognition performance in noise using lexically hard words

Area of Science:

• Auditory perception research
• Speech processing
• Cognitive psychology

Background:

• Background noise significantly impacts speech understanding.
• Lexical difficulty can impede auditory word recognition.
• Auditory training is a potential intervention for improving speech perception.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effects of repeated exposure to lexically difficult words in noise on word recognition.
• To assess generalization of training effects to untrained words and different listening conditions (isolation vs. sentences).

Main Methods:

• Two experiments involving auditory training (5-15 hours) with normal-hearing young listeners.
• Training utilized multiple talkers in a closed-set condition with trial-to-trial feedback.
• Pre- and post-training assessments measured performance on trained and untrained words in isolation and sentences.

Main Results:

• Significant improvements were observed for trained words (open and closed-set) and untrained words (closed-set).
• No significant mean improvement in sentence-level keyword identification.
• 50% of long-term training participants showed significant improvement in sentence recognition.

Conclusions:

• Sufficient training on isolated words can lead to generalization of knowledge for recognizing similar words in connected speech.
• Auditory training can enhance word recognition, with potential benefits for understanding running speech.