Spectral and binaural loudness summation in bilateral hearing aid fitting
Keywords:
Hearing loss, Hearing aids, loudness perceptionAbstract
Aversiveness of loud sounds is a frequent complaint by hearing-aid users, especially when fitted bilaterally. This study investigates whether loudness summation can be held responsible for this finding. Two aspects of loudness summation should be taken into account: spectral loudness summation for broadband signals and binaural loudness summation for signals that are presented binaurally. In this study different aspects were investigated: (1) the effect of different symmetrical hearing losses according to the classification of Bisgaard et al. (2010): N2, N3, N4, S2, and S3, and (2) the effect of spectral shape of broadband signals, by using high frequency noise and low frequency noise. For the measurements we used a well-standardized technique “Adaptive Categorical Loudness Scaling” (ACALOS). Also loudness matching was applied as a potentially clinical technique to get information about the individual loudness perception. Results show large individual differences in binaural loudness perception especially for broadband stimuli.
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