Preference for and Performance With Damped and Undamped Hearing Aids by Listeners With Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between acoustic damping of hearing aid responses and listeners’ speech discrimination and judgments of preference and sound quality. Eighteen subjects with essentially equivalent hearing impairments participated. Subjects’ speech discrimination was evaluated for a male talker in quiet and in noise and for a female talker in the same conditions with hearing aids with 0 dB, −5 dB, and −10 dB of damping. Subjects also compared the damping levels using eight bipolar adjective pairs and provided judgments of overall preference. Measurements of the hearing aid responses were made in a 2-cm 3 coupler and in the subjects’ ears using probe microphone techniques. Smoothness of the responses was quantified using the Index of Response Irregularity (IRI) and the Frequency Response Smoothness Quantification Index (FReSQI). Subjects preferred the two damped hearing aid responses to the undamped. They also had better speech discrimination with damped hearing aid responses. The bipolar adjectives were of limited use in comparing hearing aids. A few questions about hearing aid sound quality and preference appear adequate for evaluating listeners’ choice of hearing aids. Smoothness of the hearing aid responses in the test box was higher for the damped hearing aids than for the undamped. However, for real ear responses measured using a probe microphone, smoothness did not change as a function of damping level.

Psychometrically equivalent mandarin bisyllabic speech discrimination materials spoken by male and female talkers

“…There have been a number of studies which have documented differences in speech discrimination due to talker gender in hearing-impaired populations (Davis & Davidson, 1996;Stelmachowicz et al, 2002). There has also been considerable interest in the issue of phonetic balance (Eldert & Davis, 1951;Lehiste & Peterson, 1959;Martin et al, 2000).…”

Effects of Noise, Nonlinear Processing, and Linear Filtering on Perceived Speech Quality

“…Gabrielsson et al (1988) compared quality ratings for speech stimuli processed with several different frequency responses and reported that individuals with hearing loss preferred listening to speech with a frequency response that was flat in the low frequencies and had a ϩ6 dB/oct increase between 1000 and 4000 Hz. The presence of more spectral peaks has been shown to negatively impact the perception of hearing aid processed speech (e.g., Gabrielsson & Sjögren 1979;Davis & Davidson 1996;Warner & Bentler 2002). Low-frequency and high-frequency cutoffs also affect sound quality (Punch et al 1980;Tecca & Goldstein 1984;Punch & Beck 1986;.…”

Psychometrically equivalent Russian speech audiometry materials by male and female talkers

“…Several studies have also found differences in speech audiometry results in hearing-impaired populations due to talker gender (Davis & Davidson, 1996;Stelmachowicz et al, 2002).…”