WDRC processing distorts the temporal cues hearing-impaired listeners rely on for stop consonants

Evidence

However, listeners who are required to use temporal cues to identify elements of speech (perhaps due to significant distortions in their spectral representation of sounds) may be negatively impacted by the temporal distortions imposed by WDRC algorithms. Although limited data exist on the topic, Hedrick and Rice (2000) have demonstrated that temporal distortions imposed by these algorithms can disrupt the perception of temporal cues in speech. They evaluated plosive consonants (e.g., /t/ and /b/), which are characterized by a full stoppage of air prior to the noise burst, a temporal cue that is important for their perception, and a cue that is altered by WDRC. Hedrick and Rice demonstrated that stop consonants were more confusable with one another after being processed by WDRC. — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 1726

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in how impaired spectral representation forces reliance on temporal cues, complementing the temporal-cue chapters earlier in this book.