Purpose: Maturation of the ability to recognize target speech in the presence of a two-talker speech masker extends into early adolescence. This study evaluated whether children benefit from differences in fundamental frequency (f[subscript o]) contour depth between the target and masker speech, a cue that has been shown to improve recognition in…

Purpose: Some speech recognition data suggest that children rely less on voice pitch and harmonicity to support auditory scene analysis than adults. Two experiments evaluated development of speech-in-speech recognition using voiced speech and whispered speech, which lacks the harmonic structure of voiced speech. Method: Listeners were 5- to…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the independent and combined contributions of fundamental frequency (F0) and vocal tract length (VTL) differences on children's speech-in-speech recognition in the presence of a competing two-talker masker. Method: Participants were 64 children (5-17 years old) and 25 adults (18-39 years old).…

Purpose: Low-frequency detection thresholds in quiet vary across transducers. This experiment tested the hypothesis that transducer effects are larger in young children than adults, due to higher levels of self-generated noise in children. Method: Listeners were normal-hearing 4.6- to 11.7-year-olds and adults. Warble-tone detection was measured…

Purpose: Talkers often modify their speech when communicating with individuals who struggle to understand speech, such as listeners with hearing loss. This study evaluated the benefit of clear speech in school-age children and adults with normal hearing for speech-in-noise and speech-in-speech recognition. Method: Masked sentence recognition…

Purpose: Published data indicate nearly adultlike frequency discrimination in infants but large child -adult differences for school-age children. This study evaluated the role that differences in measurement procedures and stimuli may have played in the apparent nonmonotonicity. Frequency discrimination was assessed in preschoolers, young…

Purpose: The age at which gap detection becomes adultlike differs, depending on the stimulus characteristics. The present study evaluated whether the developmental trajectory differs as a function of stimulus frequency region or duration of the onset and offset ramps bounding the gap. Method: Thresholds were obtained for wideband noise (500-4500…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of code-switching on Spanish/English bilingual listeners' speech recognition of English and Spanish words in the presence of competing speech-shaped noise. Method: Participants were Spanish/English bilingual adults (N = 27) who were highly proficient in both languages. Target stimuli…

Purpose: The factors affecting frequency discrimination in school-age children are poorly understood. The goal of the present study was to evaluate developmental effects related to memory for pitch and the utilization of temporal fine structure. Method: Listeners were 5.1- to 13.6-year-olds and adults, all with normal hearing. A subgroup of…

Purpose: The present study evaluated the effects of inherent envelope modulation and the availability of cues across frequency on behavioral gap detection with noise-band stimuli in school-age children. Method: Listeners were 34 normal-hearing children (ages 5.2-15.6 years) and 12 normal-hearing adults (ages 18.5-28.8 years). Stimuli were…

This study examined the effects of cochlear hearing loss on the ability to discriminate increments in the duration of a stimulus under conditions where the frequency and/or amplitude of the stimulus change dynamically. Three stimulus types were used: pure tones, frequency-modulated tones, and narrow bands of noise. The carrier/center frequency of…