Continued search for better prediction of aided speech understanding in multi-talker environments.

To better understand issues of hearing-aid benefit during natural listening, this study examined the added demand placed by the goal of understanding speech over the more typically studied goal of simply recognizing speech sounds. The study compared hearing-aid benefit in two conditions, and examined factors that might account for the observed benefits. In the phonetic condition, listeners needed only identify the correct sound to make a correct response.

Listening Into 2030 Workshop: An Experiment in Envisioning the Future of Hearing and Communication Science.

Here we report the methods and output of a workshop examining possible futures of speech and hearing science out to 2030. Using a design thinking approach, a range of human-centered problems in communication were identified that could provide the motivation for a wide range of research. Nine main research programs were distilled and are summarized: (a) measuring brain and other physiological parameters, (b) auditory and multimodal displays of information, (c) auditory scene analysis, (d) enabling and understanding shared auditory virtual spaces, (e) holistic approaches to health management and hearing impairment, (f) universal access to evolving and individualized technologies, (g) biological intervention for hearing dysfunction, (h) understanding the psychosocial interactions with technology and other humans as mediated by technology, and (i) the impact of changing models of security and privacy.

A naturalistic approach to the cocktail party problem.

While studies of simple acoustic features have provided excellent bases for models of spatial hearing, we are seeking, here, to create a new paradigm for examination of shared attention and scene analysis in natural environments, where the listener is confronted with semantic information from multiple sources. In this new simulation of the cocktail party problem, a subject (S) is questioned, on-line, about information heard in multiple simultaneous stories spoken by different talkers. Questions based on brief passages in the stories are presented visually for manual response.

The effects of aging on auditory processing and cognition.

Purpose: To briefly summarize existing data on effects of aging on auditory processing and cognition.

Method: A narrative review summarized previously reported data on age-related changes in auditory processing and in cognitive processes with a focus on spoken language comprehension and memory. In addition, recent data on effects of lifestyle engagement on cognitive processes are reviewed.

Failure of the precedence effect with a noise-band vocoder.

The precedence effect (PE) describes the ability to localize a direct, leading sound correctly when its delayed copy (lag) is present, though not separately audible. The relative contribution of binaural cues in the temporal fine structure (TFS) of lead-lag signals was compared to that of interaural level differences (ILDs) and interaural time differences (ITDs) carried in the envelope. In a localization dominance paradigm participants indicated the spatial location of lead-lag stimuli processed with a binaural noise-band vocoder whose noise carriers introduced random TFS.