Effects of hearing protector devices on speech intelligibility

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of hearing protection devices (HPDs) on the understanding of speech in young adults with normal hearing, both in a silent situation and in the presence of ambient noise. The experimental research was carried out with the following variables: five different conditions of HPD use (without protectors, with two earplugs and with two earmuffs); a type of noise (pink noise); 4 test levels (60, 70, 80 and 90 dB[A]); 6 signal/noise ratios (without noise, + 5, + 10, zero, - 5 and - 10 dB); 5 repetitions for each case, totalling 600 tests with 10 monosyllables in each one. The variable measure was the percentage of correctly heard words (monosyllabic) in the test. The results revealed that, at the lowest levels (60 and 70 dB), the protectors reduced the intelligibility of speech (compared to the tests without protectors) while, in the presence of ambient noise levels of 80 and 90 dB and unfavourable signal/noise ratios (0, -5 and -10 dB), the HPDs improved the intelligibility. A comparison of the effectiveness of earplugs versus earmuffs showed that the former offer greater efficiency in respect to the recognition of speech, providing a 30% improvement over situations in which no protection is used. As might be expected, this study confirmed that the protectors' influence on speech intelligibility is related directly to the spectral curve of the protector's attenuation. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. Ltd. All rights reserved.

A interface música e linguística como instrumental metodológico para o estudo da prosódia do português arcaico

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Characteristics of fricatives consonants orthography in Brazilian children

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

O comportamento prosódico dos monossílabos no português arcaico por meio das Cantigas de Santa Maria

This paper aims to conduct a study on the prosodic behavior of monosyllables in Medieval Portuguese. This research is based on an innovative methodology that observes the relation between musical and linguistic prominences and its contributions for data collection regarding the prosodic structure of the language in study. There are in Medieval Portuguese heavy (tonic) monosyllables and light (atonic) monosyllables with diverse syllabic structure. The onset is irrelevant for the syllabic weight. Monosyllables with a consonant in the coda are heavy unless this consonant represents an inflexion element. Monosyllables with no consonant in the coda are normally light but there are also heavy monosyllables with no consonant in the coda.

Análise de registros ortográficos de consoantes soantes no início da alfabetização

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Characteristics of the acquisition of sonorant consonants orthography in Brazilian children from a São Paulo municipality

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)