Speech in noise perception improved by training fine auditory discrimination: far and applicable transfer of perceptual learning

A longstanding focus of perceptual learning research is learning specificity, the difficulty for learning to transfer to tasks and situations beyond the training setting. Previous studies have focused on promoting transfer across stimuli, such as from one sound frequency to another. Here we examined whether learning could transfer across tasks, particularly from fine discrimination of sound features to speech perception in noise, one of the most frequently encountered perceptual challenges in real life. Separate groups of normal-hearing listeners were trained on auditory interaural level difference (ILD) discrimination, interaural time difference (ITD) discrimination, and fundamental frequency (F(0)) discrimination with non-speech stimuli delivered through headphones. While ITD training led to no improvement, both ILD and F(0) training produced learning as well as transfer to speech-in-noise perception when noise differed from speech in the trained feature. These training benefits did not require similarity of task or stimuli between training and application settings, construing far and wide transfer. Thus, notwithstanding task specificity among basic perceptual skills such as discrimination of different sound features, auditory learning appears readily transferable between these skills and their “upstream” tasks utilizing them, providing an effective approach to improving performance in challenging situations or challenged populations.