Speech perception requires both detection and discrimination of sound components

Evidence

Pure-tone audiometry tests a subject’s ability to detect different frequencies, and the dBHL values indicate the extent to which the subject’s hearing is reduced at different frequencies. It thus indicates those frequency regions in which a subject is perhaps less sensitive than normally hearing listeners. This could, for example, be interpreted in practice in terms of timbral differences between specific musical sounds that might not be heard or vowel or other speech sounds that might be difficult to perceive. However, pure-tone audiometry does not provide a complete test of a subject’s hearing ability to discriminate between different sounds. Discrimination of sounds does start with the ability to detect the sounds, but it also requires appropriate sound processing to be available. For example, if the critical bands (see Section 2.2) are widened, they are less able to separate the components of complex sounds—the most important to us being speech. In order to test hearing discrimination, speech audiometry is employed that makes use of spoken material. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 2369 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Speech discrimination requires five distinct auditory features — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 1868; Speech discrimination requires intact frequency resolution; Speech perception resolves word candidate competition before a decision is made (+5 more)

Related

• Auditory detection and discrimination are distinct abilities that can diverge (similarity 0.95)
• Detecting sounds and discriminating between them are distinct hearing abilities. (similarity 0.95)
• Detection is prerequisite to but insufficient for sound discrimination (similarity 0.91)
• Speech discrimination requires five distinct auditory features (similarity 0.89)
• Detecting sounds does not guarantee discriminating them, which also needs intact critical-band processing (similarity 0.88)
• Hearing discrimination is measured phonetically by scoring correct speech sounds. (similarity 0.85)
• Speech discrimination requires intact frequency resolution (similarity 0.84)
• Auditory perception is a four-level hierarchy from detection to comprehension. (similarity 0.84)
• Objective hearing measures require linking perception, physiology, and speech ability. (similarity 0.82)
• Successful communication requires multiple distinct auditory perception abilities beyond simple detection. (similarity 0.82)
• Psychoacoustics measures detection, discrimination, magnitude, and recognition of sounds (similarity 0.82)
• Impaired frequency selectivity directly causes poor speech discrimination (similarity 0.81)
• Audiograms test pure-tone detection because pure tones are maximally frequency-specific (similarity 0.81)
• Speech intelligibility is the standard criterion for hearing function (similarity 0.81)
• Standard audiological tests miss most of the perceptual abilities humans need to communicate (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Detecting sounds and discriminating between them are distinct hearing abilities. #expands (0.90) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 2369
• Hearing discrimination is measured phonetically by scoring correct speech sounds. #expands (0.85)