The effects of band-rejection filtering at frequencies corresponding to vowel formants on voiceless consonant recognition and confusion

The consonant recognition under the rejection of consonant and vowel energy in various frequency bands was investigated in this study. A vowel-consonant and consonant vowel nonsense syllable test was ued. The selected syllable test was syllables differed with respect to vowel /i/, /α/ and /u/ contexts. The frequency bands of rejection F1, F2 and F3 were determined by the individual vowel formant frequencies and the corresponding consonant-vowel and vowel-consonant frequency transitions. The overall correct scores and confusion patterns at speech-to-noise ratios of 5 and 15 dB were examined in young normal-hearing listeners, elderly listen-and individuals with noise-induced hearing loss. The stimuli were presented at the most comfortable levels. The overall recognition scores were significantly different among the three groups of listeners. Speech-to-noise ratios affected scores of all listeners at all filter settings. band elimination did not alter speech recognition scores compared to scores from the wideband condition. F2 band elimination reduced consonant recognition scores more than did F3 band elimination. The percent of consonant recognition, the consonant rankings and the most commonly confused F1 target/response pairs varied among listeners, filter set-tings, speech-to-noise ratios and vowel contexts. The of errors for /tʃ/ and/h/ usually were a different manner production. The perception of /p, t, k, f, θ h/ was poor with the F2 band rejection and /ʃ/ and /tʃ/ were poor with F3 band rejection. The consonant /s/ was not affected by any of the band rejection filtering