Hearing in noise is a challenge for all listeners, especially for those with hearing loss. This study compares cues used for detection of a low-frequency tone in noise by older listeners with and without hearing loss to those of younger listeners with normal hearing. Performance varies significantly across different reproducible, or "frozen," masker waveforms. Analysis of these waveforms allows identification of the cues that are used for detection. This study included diotic (N0S0) and dichotic (N0Sπ) detection of a 500-Hz tone, with either narrowband or wideband masker waveforms. Both diotic and dichotic detection patterns (hit and false alarm rates) across the ensembles of noise maskers were predicted by envelope-slope cues, and diotic results were also predicted by energy cues. The relative importance of energy and envelope cues for diotic detection was explored with a roving-level paradigm that made energy cues unreliable. Most older listeners with normal hearing or mild hearing loss depended on envelope-related temporal cues, even for this low-frequency target. As hearing threshold at 500 Hz increased, the cues for diotic detection transitioned from envelope to energy cues. Diotic detection patterns for young listeners with normal hearing are best predicted by a model that combines temporal- and energy-related cues; in contrast, combining cues did not improve predictions for older listeners with or without hearing loss. Dichotic detection results for all groups of listeners were best predicted by interaural envelope cues, which significantly outperformed the classic cues based on interaural time and level differences or their optimal combination.
Detection of tones in reproducible noises provides detailed patterns of hit and false-alarm rates across sets of masker waveforms. Analysis of these detection patterns can identify the cues or combination of cues listeners use for detection in narrowband and wideband noise. Recent work has shown that diotic detection patterns of listeners with normal hearing (NH) are significantly correlated to energy and envelope cues; fine-structure cues also contribute for wideband maskers. Detection patterns are best predicted by an optimal cue-combination model based on signal-detection theory. In this study, listeners with mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss (HL) were tested using the same waveforms. Their diotic detection patterns were best predicted by energy or envelope cues, with little contribution of fine-structure timing. Also, unlike NH patterns, predictions of HL patterns were rarely improved by an optimal combination of cues. For dichotic detection, NH patterns were better predicted by the slope of the interaural envelope difference (SIED) than by ITD or ILD cues. For HL patterns, the SIED cue, a nonlinear combination of ITD and ILD cues, generally did not predict detection patterns. These results illustrate differences between NH and HL listeners in the use and combination of cues for detection in noise.
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