Listening in a multisource environment with and without hearing aids

Authors

  • Nicole L. Marrone Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences and Hearing Research Center, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
  • Christine R. Mason Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences and Hearing Research Center, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
  • Gerald Kidd, Jr. Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences and Hearing Research Center, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA

Abstract

The aim of the current study was to examine the challenge faced by listeners with hearing loss when selectively attending to one source in the presence of multiple competing sources and reverberation. In a series of experiments, both younger and older listeners with normal hearing or bilateral symmetric sensorineural hearing loss served as subjects. The listeners with hearing loss were experienced users of bilateral hearing aids and were tested unaided, bilaterally aided, and unilaterally aided. The task was to repeat key words spoken by a target talker located straight ahead in the presence of two colocated or symmetrically spatially separated competing talkers. On average, listeners with normal hearing demonstrated a large benefit of spatial separation which was somewhat reduced when the room reverberation was increased. The presence of bilateral sensorineural hearing loss decreased this benefit in both room conditions. Listening through bilateral personal amplification was not significantly different from unaided listening (at an adequate sensation level). However, when listening with one ear aided and one ear unaided the already small benefit was somewhat reduced. Current results suggest an interaction between peripheral hearing loss, hearing aid use, reverberation and performance in an auditory spatial attention task and present a challenge to current models.

References

Bolia, R. S., Nelson, W. T., Ericson, M. A., and Simpson, B. D. (2000). “A speech corpus for multitalker communications research,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 107, 1065-1066.

Bronkhorst, A. (2000). "The cocktail party phenomenon: A review of research on speech intelligibility in multiple-talker conditions," Acust. Acta Acust., 86, 117–128.

Ebata, M. (2003). “Spatial unmasking and attention related to the cocktail party problem,” Acoust. Sci. Tech. 24, 208-219.

Gatehouse, S., and Noble, W. (2004). “The Speech, Spatial, and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ),” Int. J. Audiol. 43, 85-99.

Harkins, J., and Tucker, P. (2007). “An internet survey of individuals with hearing loss regarding assistive listening devices,” Trends Ampl., 11, 91-100.

Kidd, J. G., Mason, C. R., Brughera, A., and Hartmann, W. M. (2005). “The role of reverberation in release from masking due to spatial separation of sources for speech identification,” Acust. Acta Acust., 91, 526-536.

Kidd, G. Jr., Mason, C. R., Richards, V. M., Gallun, F. J., and Durlach, N. (2007). "Informational masking," in Auditory Perception of Sound Sources, edited by W.A. Yost (Springer, New York).

Marrone, N. L., Mason, C. R., and Kidd, G. Jr. (2007a). “Tuning in the spatial dimension: Evidence from a masked speech identification task,” (under review).

Marrone, N. L., Mason, C. R., and Kidd, G. Jr. (2007b). “Effect of hearing loss on the bene t of spatial separation between multiple talkers in reverberant rooms,” (under review).

Van den Bogaert, T., Klasen, T. J., Moonen, M., Van Deun, L., and Wouters, J. (2006). “Horizontal localization with bilateral hearing aids: without is better than with,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 119, 515-526.

Yost, W. A. (1997). “The cocktail party problem: Forty years later,” in Binaural and Spatial Hearing in Real and Virtual Environments, edited by R. A. Gilkey and T. R. Anderson. Mahwah, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum, 329-348.

Additional Files

Published

2007-12-15

How to Cite

Marrone, N. L., Mason, C. R., & Kidd, Jr., G. (2007). Listening in a multisource environment with and without hearing aids. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Auditory and Audiological Research, 1, 301–310. Retrieved from https://proceedings.isaar.eu/index.php/isaarproc/article/view/2007-29

Issue

Section

2007/3. Perceptual correlates of hearing loss and auditory processing disorders