Word recognition performance in competing sentence and multitalker babble paradigms in listeners with hearing loss

Authors

  • Sherri L. Smith Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Mountain Home, Tennessee, USA and East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee, USA
  • Richard H. Wilson Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Mountain Home, Tennessee, USA and East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee, USA
  • Rachel A. McArdle Bay Pines VA Healthcare System, Florida, USA and University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA

Abstract

The word-recognition performances of 24 listeners with normal hearing and of 72 listeners with hearing loss were evaluated using a single-talker competing message (CM) and a six-talker multitalker babble (MTB). The 50% points were calculated using the Spearman-Kärber equation. The mean 50% point with the CM paradigm was -3.5 dB signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) and was 3.9 dB S/N with the MTB for the listeners with normal hearing. The listeners with hearing loss had a mean 50% point of 11.1 dB S/N with the CM and 13.4 dB S/N with the MTB. For both groups of listeners, the slopes of the psychometric functions were steeper for the MTB paradigms than for the CM material paradigms. These findings suggest that the listeners with hearing loss perform similarly with both noises, whereas the listeners with normal hearing probably achieve a partial release from masking from the valleys in the amplitude modulations of the CM more so than the modulations provided by the MTB.

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Additional Files

Published

2007-12-15

How to Cite

Smith, S. L., Wilson, R. H., & McArdle, R. A. (2007). Word recognition performance in competing sentence and multitalker babble paradigms in listeners with hearing loss. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Auditory and Audiological Research, 1, 415–422. Retrieved from https://proceedings.isaar.eu/index.php/isaarproc/article/view/2007-40

Issue

Vol. 1 (2007): Auditory Signal Processing in Hearing Impaired Listeners

Section

2007/4. Speech perception and processing

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