Loud speech sounds can mask quieter ones within the same utterance for hearing-impaired listeners

Evidence

The reduced release from forward masking has substantial implications for listeners with sensorineural hearing loss. Even when target stimuli are presented in a quiet environment, components of the target stimulus that precede other components can drastically influence the ability to extract information present throughout the duration of the target. For example, within a speech signal, a high-intensity vowel could, in theory, forward-mask a low-intensity consonant, causing difficulty for the listener with hearing loss to identify that consonant. Slowing speech can also help with forward masking effects, but is not always easily achievable. — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 1111

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• SEED: Angles toward why hearing-impaired listeners struggle with rapid conversational speech beyond simple audibility — a blog/article framing on ‘compressed syllables hide consonants’.

Related

• Slow release from forward masking impairs comprehension of rapid speech. (similarity 0.88)
• Loud flanking syllables immediately preceding a soft target induce forward masking (similarity 0.88)
• Only simultaneous masking arises in cochlear peripheral processing (similarity 0.88)
• Prolonged forward masking makes vowels mask consonants in impaired ears (similarity 0.88)
• Hearing-impaired listeners show intact gap detection but prolonged forward masking that hides consonants (similarity 0.87)
• Presenting speech at the same loudness minimizes forward-masking differences (similarity 0.86)
• Overly loud speech masks its own higher frequencies and gets less intelligible (similarity 0.86)
• Target syllables flanked by loud neighbors suffer forward masking within 100 ms (similarity 0.86)
• Classical spectral-peak vowel coding is especially vulnerable to noise and level changes (similarity 0.85)
• Temporal masking alone masks brief consonants even without room reverberation. (similarity 0.84)
• Noise and reverberation both mask consonants, which are about 20 dB quieter than vowels (similarity 0.84)
• Loud speech can mask its own high-frequency components via upward spread of masking (similarity 0.84)
• Sensorineural hearing loss worsens masking beyond mere threshold elevation (similarity 0.83)
• Plosive consonants get masked by preceding loud vowels even in free field (similarity 0.83)
• Cochlear damage increases susceptibility to masking, hurting speech in noise. (similarity 0.83)