Listeners vary in their ability to understand speech in noisy environments. Hearing sensitivity, as measured by pure-tone audiometry, can only partly explain these results, and cognition has emerged as another key concept. Although cognition relates to speech perception, the exact nature of the relationship remains to be fully understood. This study investigates how different aspects of cogniti...

Speech perception in noise is still difficult for cochlear implant (CI) users even with many years of CI use. This study aimed to investigate neurophysiological and behavioral foundations for CI-dependent speech perception in noise. Seventeen post-lingual CI users and twelve age-matched normal hearing adults participated in two experiments. In Experiment 1, CI users' auditory-only word percepti...

Background Previous studies have shown that interaural-time-difference (ITD) training can improve localization ability. Surprisingly little is, however, known about localization training vis-à-vis speech perception in noise based on interaural time difference in the envelope (ITD ENV). We sought to investigate the reliability of an ITD ENV-based training program in speech-in-noise perception am...

Vocal learning in humans is isolated in evolution, nevertheless the comparative approach can help give insight into mechanisms of speech. Birdsong and speech learning share similar computational problems and may share similar neural mechanisms. In birds, there is a well-known sensory representation of the individual s own song. A similar representation is postulated for speech, and the implicat...

This work examines the effect of gender stereotypes on the perception of language by drawing together findings from the fields of speech perception, gender studies, and social psychology. Results from two speech perception experiments are reviewed that show that listeners’ stereotypes about gender, as activated by the faces and voices of speakers, alter the listeners’ perception of the fricativ...