This paper describes a shortened and improved version of the Speech in Noise (SIN) Test (Etymotic Research, 1993). In the first two of four experiments, the level of a female talker relative to that of four-talker babble was adjusted sentence by sentence to produce 50% correct scores for normal-hearing subjects. In the second two experiments, those sentences-in-babble that produced either lack of equivalence or high across-subject variability in scores were discarded. These experiments produced 12 equivalent lists, each containing six sentences, with one sentence at each adjusted signal-to-noise ratio of 25, 20, 15, 10, 5, and 0 dB. Six additional lists were also made equivalent when the scores of particular pairs were averaged. The final lists comprise the "QuickSIN" test that measures the SNR a listener requires to understand 50% of key words in sentences in a background of babble. The standard deviation of single-list scores is 1.4 dB SNR for hearing-impaired subjects, based on test-retest data. A single QuickSIN list takes approximately one minute to administer and provides an estimate of SNR loss accurate to +/-2.7 dB at the 95% confidence level.

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The findings of this study generally support the use of synchronized MMs and/or VCs, although there may be exceptions to their utility.

A total of 741 hr of hearing aid use were logged, 50% of which were spent in environments no louder than 50 dB SPL. Expansion, directionality, and noise management were active 45, 10, and 21% of the time, respectively; the median amount of gain reduction for noise management was ∼1 dB. Although expansion and noise management were always active at the low and high input levels, respectively, activation of directionality never exceeded 50%. Expansion and noise management were sometimes active simultaneously, as were directionality and noise management. Bilateral agreement in feature activation typically exceeded 80%, except when the input level was at the cusp of a threshold for activation of a specific feature and at high input levels.

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