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.