On enhancement of spectral contrast in speech for hearing-impaired listeners

A digital processing method is described for altering spectral contrast (the difference in amplitude between spectral peaks and valleys) in natural utterances. Speech processed with programs implementing the contrast alteration procedure was presented to listeners with moderate to severe sensorineural hearing loss. The task was a three alternative (/b/,/d/, or /g/) stop consonant identification task for consonants at a fixed location in short nonsense utterances. Overall, tokens with enhanced contrast showed moderate gains in percentage correct stop consonant identification when compared to unaltered tokens. Conversely, reducing spectral contrast generally reduced percent correct stop consonant identification. Contrast alteration effects were inconsistent for utterances containing /d/. The observed contrast effects also interacted with token intelligibility.