Growth of low‐pass masking of pure tones and speech for hearing‐impaired and normal‐hearing listeners

1995 ◽  
Vol 98 (6) ◽  
pp. 3113-3124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judy R. Dubno ◽  
Jayne B. Ahlstrom
Keyword(s):  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Low Pass ◽  
Pure Tones

Frequency Discrimination of Short- versus Long-Duration Tones by Normal and Hearing-Impaired Listeners

1987 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard L. Freyman ◽  
David A. Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Short Duration ◽  
Discrimination Performance ◽  
Frequency Discrimination ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Stimulus Level ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Long Duration ◽  
Sensorineural Hearing Impairment ◽  
Pure Tones ◽  
Low Levels

This investigation explored the effects of stimulus level on the frequency discrimination of long- and short-duration pure tones by 5 subjects with normal hearing and 7 with sensorineural hearing impairment. Frequency difference limens (DLs) were obtained as a function of signal intensity for 5-ms and 300-ms tones at 500, 1000, and 2000 Hz. The performance of most of the hearing-impaired subjects was poorer than normal for 300-ms tones, but not for 5-ms tones. This result was relatively independent of the stimulus sensation levels at which the data were compared. However, the current results also show an unexpected dependence of the frequency DL on the sensation level of short-duration tones. In several normal-hearing subjects, frequency discrimination performance for these short tones is poorer at moderately high levels than at low levels.

A Comparison of Psychometric Functions for Detection in Normal-Hearing and Hearing-Impaired Listeners

1990 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 433-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Hoberg Arehart ◽  
Edward M. Burns ◽  
Robert S. Schlauch
Keyword(s):  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Forced Choice ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Choice Procedure ◽  
Forced Choice Procedure ◽  
Pure Tones

Psychometric functions (PFD) for the detection of pure tones were obtained with a two-interval forced-choice procedure from a group of listeners with normal hearing and a group of listeners with sensorineural impairments of presumed cochlear origin. Five PFDs were obtained for each group at each of the four test frequencies (500, 2000, 4000, and 8000 Hz). The slopes of PFDs were abnormally steep in some of the hearing-impaired listeners, but were statistically significant only at 2000 Hz.

Stimulus Duration and Frequency Discrimination for Normal-Hearing and Hearing-Impaired Subjects

1984 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 252-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph W. Hall ◽  
Elizabeth J. Wood
Keyword(s):  
Stimulus Duration ◽  
Temporal Integration ◽  
Detection Threshold ◽  
Frequency Discrimination ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Frequency Difference ◽  
Impaired Group ◽  
Overall Performance ◽  
Pure Tones

Frequency discrimination for 500- and 2000-Hz pure tones at durations of 5, 10, 20, 50, and 200 ms was determined for 10 normal-hearing and 10 cochlear-impaired listeners. Listeners from both groups demonstrated monotonic increases in frequency difference limens as stimulus duration decreased. The functions of the hearing-impaired listeners were parallel to those of the normal-hearing listeners for stimulus durations between 10 and 200 ms, but the overall performance of the hearing-impaired group was poorer than that of the normal-hearing group. The functions of many of the cochlear-impaired subjects were less steep than normal for the shortest durations tested (between 5 and l0 ms). There appeared to be no relation between temporal integration for frequency discrimination and temporal integration for detection threshold. The results are discussed in terms of processes of temporal integration and frequency selectivity.

Use of Low-Pass Noise in Word-Recognition Testing

1976 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald L. Cohen ◽  
Robert W. Keith
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Word Recognition ◽  
Sound Pressure ◽  
Signal To Noise Ratio ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Signal To Noise ◽  
Low Pass ◽  
Cochlear Hearing Loss ◽  
High Sound

This study attempted to determine whether word-recognition scores obtained in noise were more sensitive to the presence of a hearing loss than recognition scores obtained in quiet. Subjects with normal hearing, high-frequency cochlear hearing loss, and flat cochlear hearing loss were tested in quiet and in the presence of a 500-Hz low-pass noise. Two signal-to-noise conditions were employed, −4 dB and −12 dB. Words were presented at 40 dB SL in one experiment and at 96 dB SPL for normal-hearing subjects in a second experiment. The results indicated that, while the word-recognition scores of groups were similar in quiet, the more negative the signal-to-noise ratio, the greater the separation of group scores, with hearing-impaired subjects having poorer recognition scores than normal-hearing subjects. When the speech and noise were presented at high SPLs, however, the normal-hearing subjects had poorer word recognition than those with flat cochlear losses. The results are interpreted as indicating greater spread of masking in normal-hearing than hearing-impaired subjects at high sound pressure levels.

Speech Perception in Low-Pass Filtered Noise for Normal and Hearing-Impaired Listeners

1990 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 290-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia G. Stelmachowicz ◽  
Dawna E. Lewis ◽  
William J. Kelly ◽  
Walt Jesteadt
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Adaptive Procedure ◽  
Test Items ◽  
Fixed Level ◽  
Prosodic Cues ◽  
Low Pass ◽  
Filtered Noise

Two experiments were conducted concerning speech perception in noise. In Experiment 1, a comparison was made between adaptive and fixed-level procedures to estimate the S/N ratio at which 50% correct performance occurred for nonsense syllables for normal-hearing listeners. The two methods yield similar S/N ratio estimates, but the consonant confusions found with the fixed-level method could not be predicted accurately from the adaptive procedure. In Experiment 2, the adaptive procedure was used to estimate the S/N ratio for a 50% performance level in low-pass filtered noise with a range of cutoff frequencies. Data were obtained from 5 normal-hearing listeners at two speech levels (50 and 75 dB SPL) and 4 hearing-impaired listeners at one speech level (75 dB SPL). The hearing-impaired listeners required a better S/N ratio than the normal listeners at either presentation level for all except the widest bandwidth, where their S/N ratios began to converge with the normal values. In addition, the S/N ratios for the hearing-impaired listeners plateaued at relatively narrow bandwidths (0.75 to 2.5 kHz) compared to the normal-hearing group (3.0 to 5.0 kHz). That is, the addition of high-frequency components to the noise did not alter performance. These findings suggest that the hearing-impaired listeners may have relied upon either low-frequency cues or prosodic cues in the perception of these test items.

Tone-on-Tone Masking in Subjects with Normal Hearing and with Sensorineural Hearing Loss

1981 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 506-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Y. Chung
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Sensorineural Hearing Loss ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Hearing Threshold ◽  
Normal Subjects ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Sensorineural Hearing ◽  
Normal Case ◽  
Pure Tones

Quiet and masked thresholds were obtained from 5 subjects with normal hearing and 31 subjects with sensorineural hearing loss. Maskers were pure tones varying in frequency and intensity. The hearing-impaired subjects showed an abnormal spread of masking when masking was measured in terms of masked threshold. The abnormal spread of masking seems to be related to both the hearing threshold of the masker and the quiet threshold of the test signal. The notch due to detection of combination tones found on the high-frequency slope of masked audiograms of normal subjects (obscuring the actual extent to which the signal is masked) tends to accentuate the apparent abnormal upward spread of masking in the hearing-impaired subjects. The abnormal spread in the latter case is real, but comparison with the normal case must take the notch into account.

Hearing Aid Amplification Reduces Communication Effort of People With Hearing Impairment and Their Conversation Partners

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 1299-1311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Beechey ◽  
Jörg M. Buchholz ◽  
Gitte Keidser
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Impairment ◽  
Hearing Aid ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Referential Communication ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Directional Hearing ◽  
Acoustic Environment ◽  
Communication Task ◽  
Acoustic Environments ◽  
The Impact

Objectives This study investigates the hypothesis that hearing aid amplification reduces effort within conversation for both hearing aid wearers and their communication partners. Levels of effort, in the form of speech production modifications, required to maintain successful spoken communication in a range of acoustic environments are compared to earlier reported results measured in unaided conversation conditions. Design Fifteen young adult normal-hearing participants and 15 older adult hearing-impaired participants were tested in pairs. Each pair consisted of one young normal-hearing participant and one older hearing-impaired participant. Hearing-impaired participants received directional hearing aid amplification, according to their audiogram, via a master hearing aid with gain provided according to the NAL-NL2 fitting formula. Pairs of participants were required to take part in naturalistic conversations through the use of a referential communication task. Each pair took part in five conversations, each of 5-min duration. During each conversation, participants were exposed to one of five different realistic acoustic environments presented through highly open headphones. The ordering of acoustic environments across experimental blocks was pseudorandomized. Resulting recordings of conversational speech were analyzed to determine the magnitude of speech modifications, in terms of vocal level and spectrum, produced by normal-hearing talkers as a function of both acoustic environment and the degree of high-frequency average hearing impairment of their conversation partner. Results The magnitude of spectral modifications of speech produced by normal-hearing talkers during conversations with aided hearing-impaired interlocutors was smaller than the speech modifications observed during conversations between the same pairs of participants in the absence of hearing aid amplification. Conclusions The provision of hearing aid amplification reduces the effort required to maintain communication in adverse conditions. This reduction in effort provides benefit to hearing-impaired individuals and also to the conversation partners of hearing-impaired individuals. By considering the impact of amplification on both sides of dyadic conversations, this approach contributes to an increased understanding of the likely impact of hearing impairment on everyday communication.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document