A comparison of speech intelligibility and subjective quality with hearing-aid processing in older adults with hearing loss.

Objective: This study characterised the relationship between speech intelligibility and quality in listeners with hearing loss for a range of hearing-aid processing settings and acoustic conditions.

Design: Binaural speech intelligibility scores and quality ratings were measured for sentences presented in babble noise and processed through a hearing-aid simulation. The intelligibility-quality relationship was investigated by (1) assessing the effects of experimental conditions on each task; (2) directly comparing intelligibility scores and quality ratings for each participant across the range of conditions; and (3) comparing the association between signal envelope fidelity (represented by a cepstral correlation metric) and intelligibility and quality.

The Type of Noise Influences Quality Ratings for Noisy Speech in Hearing Aid Users.

Purpose The overall goal of the current study was to determine whether noise type plays a role in perceptual quality ratings. We compared quality ratings using various noise types and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) ranges using hearing aid simulations to consider the effects of hearing aid processing features. Method Ten older adults with bilateral mild to moderately severe sensorineural hearing loss rated the sound quality of sentences processed through a hearing aid simulation and presented in the presence of five different noise types (six-talker babble, three-talker conversation, street traffic, kitchen, and fast-food restaurant) at four SNRs (3, 8, 12, and 20 dB).

Using Objective Metrics to Measure Hearing Aid Performance.

Objectives: The performance of hearing aids is generally characterized by a small set of standardized measurements. The primary goals of these procedures are to measure basic aspects of the hearing aid performance and to ascertain that the device is operating properly. A more general need exists for objective metrics that can predict hearing aid outcomes.

Survey of Current Practice in the Fitting and Fine-Tuning of Common Signal-Processing Features in Hearing Aids for Adults.

Background: Current guidelines for adult hearing aid fittings recommend the use of a prescriptive fitting rationale with real-ear verification that considers the audiogram for the determination of frequency-specific gain and ratios for wide dynamic range compression. However, the guidelines lack recommendations for how other common signal-processing features (e.g.

Using Cognitive Screening Tests in Audiology.

Purpose: The population of the United States is aging. Those older adults are living longer than ever and have an increased desire for social participation. As a result, audiologists are likely to see an increased demand for service by older clients whose communication difficulty is caused by a combination of hearing loss and cognitive impairment.

Chosen Listening Levels for Music With and Without the Use of Hearing Aids.

Purpose: The objective of this study was to describe chosen listening levels (CLLs) for recorded music for listeners with hearing loss in aided and unaided conditions.

Method: The study used a within-subject, repeated-measures design with 13 adult hearing-aid users. The music included rock and classical samples with different amounts of audio-industry compression limiting.

Long-Term Outcome Data in Patients following One Year's Use of a Fully Implantable Active Middle Ear Implant.

This study examined the safety and efficacy of a fully implantable active middle ear (AMEI) system. Outcome measures assessed AMEI performance compared with an optimally fitted conventional hearing aid (CHA). Fifty adults with stable, symmetric moderate-to-severe sensorineural hearing loss were implanted at 9 ambulatory settings.

The effects of noise vocoding on speech quality perception.

Speech perception depends on access to spectral and temporal acoustic cues. Temporal cues include slowly varying amplitude changes (i.e.

Determining perceived sound quality in a simulated hearing aid using the international speech test signal.

Objectives: Based on speech segments from female talkers of different languages, the International Speech Test Signal (ISTS) has speech-like acoustic properties but is not intelligible. This study investigated whether sound quality ratings for the ISTS are similar to ratings obtained for linguistically meaningful speech.

Design: A simulated hearing aid was used to process the ISTS for a variety of noise, nonlinear, linear, and combined nonlinear and linear processing conditions.

Effects of noise, nonlinear processing, and linear filtering on perceived music quality.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the relative impact of different forms of hearing aid signal processing on quality ratings of music.

Design: Music quality was assessed using a rating scale for three types of music: orchestral classical music, jazz instrumental, and a female vocalist. The music stimuli were subjected to a wide range of simulated hearing aid processing conditions including, (1) noise and nonlinear processing, (2) linear filtering, and (3) combinations of noise, nonlinear, and linear filtering.

Effects of noise, nonlinear processing, and linear filtering on perceived speech quality.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to measure subjective quality ratings in listeners with normal hearing and listeners with hearing loss for speech subjected to a wide range of processing conditions that are representative of real hearing aids.

Design: Speech quality was assessed using a rating scale in a group of 14 listeners with normal hearing and 15 listeners with mild to moderately severe sensorineural hearing loss. Controlled simulations of hearing aid processing were used to process speech that included speech subjected to (1) noise and nonlinear processing, (2) linear filtering, and (3) combinations of noise, nonlinear processing, and linear filtering.

Effects of noise and distortion on speech quality judgments in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners.

Noise and distortion reduce speech intelligibility and quality in audio devices such as hearing aids. This study investigates the perception and prediction of sound quality by both normal-hearing and hearing-impaired subjects for conditions of noise and distortion related to those found in hearing aids. Stimuli were sentences subjected to three kinds of distortion (additive noise, peak clipping, and center clipping), with eight levels of degradation for each distortion type.