Mark Hedrick
Laura Schulte
Boys Town Natl. Res. Hospital, 555 N. 30th St., Omaha, NE 68131
Previous studies of the /p/--/t/ stop consonant contrast for normal hearing listeners have shown that both manipulation of the amplitude of the burst relative to the vowel in the F4--F5 frequency region and overall presentation level can influence the perception of place of articulation [Ohde and Stevens, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 74, 706--714 (1983); Gravel and Ohde, Asha 25(10), 101 (1983)]. The influence of relative amplitude and presentation level was tested for both normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners in the present study. Synthetic CV stimuli were employed, and the amplitude of the burst relative to vowel onset amplitude in the F4--F5 frequency region was manipulated across a 20-dB range. The findings revealed a difference in the perception of place of articulation between the two subject groups as a function of presentation level. The results are consistent with the premise that abnormal response growth near threshold may alter consonant perception in the hearing impaired. [Work supported by NIH.]