Timing of turn taking in conversation to assess listening effort and evaluate hearing-aid processing

轮流谈话的时间来评估听力努力和评估助听器处理

• 批准号: RGPIN-2021-03085
• 负责人: MacDonald, Ewen
• 金额: $ 2.04万
• 依托单位: University of Waterloo
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=765913
• 关键词: Timing; turn; taking; conversation; assess

Speech is one of the most important parts of human communication and a key element of social interaction. However, for many people, the use of spoken language is a challenge. One in 10 Canadians has a speech, language or hearing impairment. This problem is exacerbated with age with 40% of those between 60 and 69 and 65% of those between 70 and 79 having some type of communication disorder. Traditionally, the difficulty hearing-impaired (HI) listeners experience when communicating in noisy environments has been attributed to reduced speech intelligibility compared to normal-hearing (NH) listeners. Thus, the field has focused on experimental paradigms that involve passive listening tests. However, conversation is a complex phenomenon involving not only speech production and perception but also the interaction and the adaptation of talkers to each other and their environment. The proposed research program aims to address this challenge by gaining new insights into the critical elements of interactive conversation. This research will investigate the timing of turn taking in conversation. To achieve the rapid turn taking that is typical of everyday conversation, talkers need to conduct three things in parallel: (1) understand the speech their partners are producing, (2) plan a speech response, and (3) predict when their partners will end their turn. Thus, when listening becomes more difficult (e.g., due to noise or a hearing loss), talkers may not be able to maintain the timing of turn taking that is typical of conversation in quiet. The proposed research has four objectives: (1) characterize the effect of noise and hearing loss on the prediction of the timing of turn ends in conversation; (2) characterize acoustic markers that can be used by hearing aids to estimate the difficulty listeners are experiencing during a conversation; (3) develop lab-based measures of listening effort during conversation; and (4) develop new hearing-aid processing evaluation paradigm based on measuring conversation. In the near-term, the results here will lead to new methods to better evaluate novel hearing-aid features and signal-processing algorithms. Further, understanding how turn-taking behaviour differs between normal-hearing and hearing-impaired talkers could be used to develop new communication strategies used in counselling. Through the combination of research results and the development of student training, the proposed research program will support the development of the next generation of hearing aids, significantly improving the quality of life for an aging population, increasing the productivity of workers retiring later in life, and making it easier for others to communicate with the one in 10 Canadians with a speech, language or hearing impairment. Finally, improving our fundamental understanding of interactive behaviour during conversation will also impact other areas, such as the development of more natural human-computer voice interaction systems.

言语是人类交流最重要的部分之一，也是社会互动的关键要素。然而，对于许多人来说，使用口语是一个挑战。十分之一的加拿大人有言语、语言或听力障碍。这个问题随着年龄的增长而加剧，60 至 69 岁之间的人中有 40% 以及 70 至 79 岁之间的人中有 65% 患有某种类型的沟通障碍。传统上，与正常听力 (NH) 听众相比，听力受损 (HI) 听众在嘈杂环境中交流时遇到的困难被归因于语音清晰度下降。因此，该领域重点关注涉及被动听力测试的实验范式。然而，对话是一种复杂的现象，不仅涉及言语的产生和感知，还涉及谈话者之间的互动以及对彼此及其环境的适应。拟议的研究计划旨在通过对交互式对话的关键要素获得新的见解来应对这一挑战。这项研究将调查对话中轮流的时间。为了实现日常对话中典型的快速轮流，说话者需要并行执行三件事：(1) 理解他们的伙伴正在发表的演讲，(2) 计划演讲响应，以及 (3) 预测他们的伙伴何时会发言结束他们的回合。因此，当聆听变得更加困难时（例如，由于噪音或听力损失），讲话者可能无法保持安静对话中典型的轮流时间。拟议的研究有四个目标：（1）表征噪声和听力损失对对话结束时间预测的影响； (2) 表征助听器可以使用的声学标记来估计听众在谈话过程中遇到的困难； (3) 开发基于实验室的对话期间听力努力测量； (4)基于测量对话开发新的助听处理评估范式。在短期内，这里的结果将带来新的方法来更好地评估新颖的助听器功能和信号处理算法。此外，了解正常听力和听力受损的说话者之间的轮流行为有何不同，可以用来开发咨询中使用的新沟通策略。通过将研究成果与学生培训的发展相结合，拟议的研究计划将支持下一代助听器的开发，显着改善老龄化人口的生活质量，提高晚年退休工人的生产力，使其他人能够更轻松地与十分之一有言语、语言或听力障碍的加拿大人进行交流。最后，提高我们对对话过程中交互行为的基本理解也将影响其他领域，例如更自然的人机语音交互系统的开发。