Consonant Perception in Connected Syllables Spoken at a Conversational Syllabic Rate.
Sandeep A Phatak, Danielle J Zion, Ken W Grant
PMID 36794551WHAT IT FOUND
Consonants in fast nonsense syllables were harder to hear than in isolated syllables.
Watching the talker helped most with place of articulation. These were normal-hearing lab listeners, not patients.
Key findings
01Consonants in connected nonsense syllables were recognized at a poorer signal-to-noise ratio than consonants in isolated syllables, even after accounting for speech and masker spectra.
02Watching the talker improved the signal-to-noise ratio needed for 70% correct consonant recognition by about 5 dB compared with listening alone.
03At matched signal-to-noise ratio, visual cues helped place of articulation most, manner less, and voicing little.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The listeners had normal hearing, so the results do not show how patients with hearing loss or speech perception disorders perform. The stimuli were nonsense syllables without lexical, semantic, syntactic, or morphological context, so real conversation may be easier. The connected-syllable stimuli were spoken by one male talker, while the isolated-syllable comparison used one female talker. The connected syllables were spoken relatively clearly, likely with less coarticulation than casual conversation. The isolated-syllable comparison had a ceiling effect for visual place information, which could understate visual benefit in that study.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that watching the talker will solve patient communication in conversation. The study tested normal-hearing adults on nonsense syllables without word context, and it did not test patients, real conversation, or treatment outcomes.