Evaluation of Communication Outcomes With Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids.

Objectives: Over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids are a treatment option for adults with mild-to-moderate hearing loss. Previous investigations demonstrated the benefits of OTC hearing aids, primarily self-fit OTCs (i.e.

The Effects of Signal to Noise Ratio, T60 , Wide-Dynamic Range Compression Speed, and Digital Noise Reduction in a Virtual Restaurant Setting.

Objectives: Hearing aid processing in realistic listening environments is difficult to study effectively. Often the environment is unpredictable or unknown, such as in wearable aid trials with subjective report by the wearer. Some laboratory experiments create listening environments to exert tight experimental control, but those environments are often limited by physical space, a small number of sound sources, or room absorptive properties.

Cognitive and linguistic abilities and perceptual restoration of missing speech: Evidence from online assessment.

When speech is clear, speech understanding is a relatively simple and automatic process. However, when the acoustic signal is degraded, top-down cognitive and linguistic abilities, such as working memory capacity, lexical knowledge (i.e.

The role of working memory in speech recognition by hearing-impaired older listeners: does the task matter?

Objective: Working memory refers to a cognitive system that holds a limited amount of information in a temporarily heightened state of availability, for use in ongoing cognitive tasks. Research suggests a link between working memory and speech recognition. In this study, we investigated this relationship using two working memory tests that differed in regard to the operationalisation of the link between working memory and attention: the (AVDAT) and the widely used reading span test.

Using Machine Learning and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to Classify Individuals With Hearing Loss.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was mounting interest in remote testing solutions for audiology. The ultimate goal of such work was to improve access to hearing healthcare for individuals that might be unable or reluctant to seek audiological help in a clinic. In 2015, Diane Van Tasell patented a method for measuring an audiogram when the precise signal level was unknown (patent US 8,968,209 B2).

Does the Speech Cue Profile Affect Response to Amplitude Envelope Distortion?

Purpose A broad area of interest to our group is to understand the consequences of the "cue profile" (a measure of how well a listener can utilize audible temporal and/or spectral cues for listening scenarios in which a subset of cues is distorted. The study goal was to determine if listeners whose cue profile indicated that they primarily used temporal cues for recognition would respond differently to speech-envelope distortion than listeners who utilized both spectral and temporal cues. Method Twenty-five adults with sensorineural hearing loss participated in the study.

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 Effect of Hearing Loss on Localization of Amplitude-Panned and Physical Sources.

Background: Clinics are increasingly turning toward using virtual environments to demonstrate and validate hearing aid fittings in "realistic" listening situations before the patient leaves the clinic. One of the most cost-effective and straightforward ways to create such an environment is through the use of a small speaker array and amplitude panning. Amplitude panning is a signal playback method used to change the perceived location of a source by changing the level of two or more loudspeakers.

Recognising foreign-accented speech of varying intelligibility and linguistic complexity: insights from older listeners with or without hearing loss.

Objective: The goal of this study was to assess recognition of foreign-accented speech of varying intelligibility and linguistic complexity in older adults. It is important to understand the factors that influence the recognition of this commonly encountered type of speech, in a population that remains understudied in this regard.

Design: A repeated measures design was used.

Recognition of foreign-accented speech in noise: The interplay between talker intelligibility and linguistic structure.

Foreign-accented speech recognition is typically tested with linguistically simple materials, which offer a limited window into realistic speech processing. The present study examined the relationship between linguistic structure and talker intelligibility in several sentence-in-noise recognition experiments. Listeners transcribed simple/short and more complex/longer sentences embedded in noise.

Sentence perception in noise by hearing-aid users predicted by syllable-constituent perception and the use of context.

Masked sentence perception by hearing-aid users is strongly correlated with three variables: (1) the ability to hear phonetic details as estimated by the identification of syllable constituents in quiet or in noise; (2) the ability to use situational context that is extrinsic to the speech signal; and (3) the ability to use inherent context provided by the speech signal itself. This approach is called "the syllable-constituent, contextual theory of speech perception" and is supported by the performance of 57 hearing-aid users in the identification of 109 syllable constituents presented in a background of 12-talker babble and the identification of words in naturally spoken sentences presented in the same babble. A simple mathematical model, inspired in large part by Boothroyd and Nittrouer [(1988).

The ability to glimpse dynamic pitch in noise by younger and older listeners.

While dynamic pitch is helpful for speech perception in temporally-modulated noise, the ability to benefit from this cue varies substantially among older listeners. To examine the perceptual factors that contribute to this variability, this study aimed to characterize individuals' ability to perceive dynamic pitch in temporally-modulated noise using dynamic pitch segments extracted from real speech and embedded in temporally modulated noise. Data from younger and older listeners showed stronger pitch contours were more easily perceived than weaker pitch contours.

Test Administration Methods and Cognitive Test Scores in Older Adults with Hearing Loss.

In light of the high prevalence of hearing loss and cognitive impairment in the aging population, it is important to know how cognitive tests should be administered for older adults with hearing loss. The purpose of the present study is to examine this question with a cognitive screening test and a working memory test. Specifically, we asked the following questions in 2 experiments.

On Dynamic Pitch Benefit for Speech Recognition in Speech Masker.

Previous work demonstrated that dynamic pitch (i.e., pitch variation in speech) aids speech recognition in various types of noises.

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.

Effects of Varying Reverberation on Music Perception for Young Normal-Hearing and Old Hearing-Impaired Listeners.

Reverberation enhances music perception and is one of the most important acoustic factors in auditorium design. However, previous research on reverberant music perception has focused on young normal-hearing (YNH) listeners. Old hearing-impaired (OHI) listeners have degraded spatial auditory processing; therefore, they may perceive reverberant music differently.

Listener Factors Associated with Individual Susceptibility to Reverberation.

Background: Reverberation is a source of acoustic degradation, present to varying extents in many everyday listening environments. The presence of reverberation decreases speech intelligibility, especially for listeners with hearing impairment. There is substantial variability in how susceptible individuals with hearing impairment are to the effects of reverberation (i.

Do Older Listeners With Hearing Loss Benefit From Dynamic Pitch for Speech Recognition in Noise?

Purpose: Dynamic pitch, the variation in the fundamental frequency of speech, aids older listeners' speech perception in noise. It is unclear, however, whether some older listeners with hearing loss benefit from strengthened dynamic pitch cues for recognizing speech in certain noise scenarios and how this relative benefit may be associated with individual factors. We first examined older individuals' relative benefit between natural and strong dynamic pitches for better speech recognition in noise.

The Effect of Dynamic Pitch on Speech Recognition in Temporally Modulated Noise.

Purpose: This study investigated the effect of dynamic pitch in target speech on older and younger listeners' speech recognition in temporally modulated noise. First, we examined whether the benefit from dynamic-pitch cues depends on the temporal modulation of noise. Second, we tested whether older listeners can benefit from dynamic-pitch cues for speech recognition in noise.

Effects of reverberation, background talker number, and compression release time on signal-to-noise ratio.

Wide dynamic range compression (WDRC) processing in hearing aids alters the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of a speech-in-noise signal. This effect depends on the modulations of the speech and noise, input SNR, and WDRC speed. The purpose of the present experiment was to examine the change in output SNR caused by the interaction between modulation characteristics and WDRC speed.

Syllable-constituent perception by hearing-aid users: Common factors in quiet and noise.

The abilities of 59 adult hearing-aid users to hear phonetic details were assessed by measuring their abilities to identify syllable constituents in quiet and in differing levels of noise (12-talker babble) while wearing their aids. The set of sounds consisted of 109 frequently occurring syllable constituents (45 onsets, 28 nuclei, and 36 codas) spoken in varied phonetic contexts by eight talkers. In nominal quiet, a speech-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 40 dB, scores of individual listeners ranged from about 23% to 85% correct.

Auditory and Cognitive Factors Associated with Speech-in-Noise Complaints following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury.

Background: Auditory complaints following mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) are common, but few studies have addressed the role of auditory temporal processing in speech recognition complaints.

Purpose: In this study, deficits understanding speech in a background of speech noise following MTBI were evaluated with the goal of comparing the relative contributions of auditory and nonauditory factors.

Research Design: A matched-groups design was used in which a group of listeners with a history of MTBI were compared to a group matched in age and pure-tone thresholds, as well as a control group of young listeners with normal hearing (YNH).

Intelligibility and Clarity of Reverberant Speech: Effects of Wide Dynamic Range Compression Release Time and Working Memory.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of varying wide dynamic range compression (WDRC) release time on intelligibility and clarity of reverberant speech. The study also considered the role of individual working memory.

Method: Thirty older listeners with mild to moderately-severe sloping sensorineural hearing loss participated.