OBJECTIVES: The clinical effects of the simultaneous application of nonlinear frequency compression and dichotic hearing on people with hearing impairments have not been evaluated previously. In this study, the clinical effects of the simultaneous application of these two techniques on the recognition of consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words with fricatives were evaluated using normal-hearing subjects and a hearing loss simulator operated in the severe hearing loss setting. METHODS: A total of 21 normal-hearing volunteers whose native language was English were recruited for this study, and two different hearing loss simulators, which were configured for severe hearing loss in the high-frequency range, were utilized. The subjects heard 82 English CVC words, and the word recognition score and response time were measured. RESULTS: The experimental results demonstrated that the simultaneous application of these two techniques showed almost even performance compared to the sole application of nonlinear frequency compression in a severe hearing loss setting. CONCLUSION: Though it is generally accepted that dichotic hearing can decrease the spectral masking thresholds of an hearing-impaired person, simultaneous application of the nonlinear frequency compression and dichotic hearing techniques did not significantly improve the recognition of words with fricatives compared to the sole application of nonlinear frequency compression in a severe hearing loss setting.
Dichotic Listening Tests ; Hearing Loss ; Hearing* ; Humans ; Masks ; Reaction Time ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted ; Volunteers

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between the advantage ear (cerebral hemisphere) of Spanish-speaking Mexican learners and the third Chinese tone. METHODS: Third tone Chinese vowel syllables were used as experimental materials with dichotic listening technology to test the Spanish-speaking Mexican Chinese learners (20-32 years old) who studied Chinese about 20 h. RESULTS: In terms of error rates to identify the third Chinese tone, the Spanish-speaking Mexican Chinese learners's reaction to the third tone suggested that their left ears were the advantageous ear (the right cerebral hemisphere) (Z=-2.091, P=0.036). CONCLUSION The verbal information of tones influenced the perception of Mexican Chinese learners' mandarin tones. In the process of learning mandarin tones, Mexican Chinese learners gradually formed the category of tones.
Adult ; China ; Dichotic Listening Tests ; Humans ; Language ; Learning ; Mexico ; Speech Perception ; Young Adult