Mandarin-speaking, kindergarten-aged children with cochlear implants benefit from natural f₀ patterns in the use of semantic context during speech recognition

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which semantic context and F₀ contours affect speech recognition by Mandarin-speaking, kindergarten-aged children with cochlear implants (CIs). Method: The experimental design manipulated two factors, that is, semantic context, by comparing the intelligibility of normal sentence versus word list, and F₀ contours, by comparing the intelligibility of utterances with natural versus flat F₀ patterns. Twenty-two children with CIs completed a speech recognition test. Results: Children with CIs could use both semantic context and F₀ contours to assist speech recognition. Furthermore, natural F₀ patterns provided extra benefit when semantic context was present than when it was absent. Conclusion: Dynamic F₀ contours play an important role in speech recognition by Mandarin-speaking children with CIs despite the well-known limitation of CI devices in extracting F₀ information.