Audibility and speech intelligibility revisited: implications for amplification

Authors

  • Teresa Y. C. Ching National Acoustic Laboratories, Australian Hearing, 126 Greville Street, Chatswood, NSW 2067, Australia HEARing CRC, Australia
  • Harvey Dillon National Acoustic Laboratories, Australian Hearing, 126 Greville Street, Chatswood, NSW 2067, Australia
  • Frances Lockhart National Acoustic Laboratories, Australian Hearing, 126 Greville Street, Chatswood, NSW 2067, Australia
  • Emma van Wanrooy National Acoustic Laboratories, Australian Hearing, 126 Greville Street, Chatswood, NSW 2067, Australia
  • Matt Flax National Acoustic Laboratories, Australian Hearing, 126 Greville Street, Chatswood, NSW 2067, Australia

Abstract

A major goal of amplification is to restore audibility to people with hearing loss in as wide a range of frequencies as possible for maximising speech intelligibility. The usefulness of audibility for speech intelligibility, however, decreases as hearing loss increases. This reduced effectiveness of audibility may be related to the presence of cochlear dead regions or just to reduced frequency and temporal resolution. In this paper, the current literature that relates the presence of dead regions to usefulness of highfrequency audibility is examined. This is followed by a brief description of an empirical study that investigated factors affecting speech intelligibility in quiet and in noise by hearing-impaired listeners. A modification of the Speech Intelligibility Index (SII) method that minimised discrepancies between observed and predicted speech intelligibility is presented. Finally, factors that affect speech intelligibility are summarised together with a discussion on implications for amplification.

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Published

2011-12-15

How to Cite

Ching, T. Y. C., Dillon, H., Lockhart, F., van Wanrooy, E., & Flax, M. (2011). Audibility and speech intelligibility revisited: implications for amplification. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Auditory and Audiological Research, 3, 11–19. Retrieved from https://proceedings.isaar.eu/index.php/isaarproc/article/view/2011-02

Issue

Section

2011/1. Indicators of hearing impairment and measures of speech perception