Effects of mild hearing loss and age on speech recognition in noise
Judy R. Dubno, Donald D. Dirks, Donald E. Morgan · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1982
Previous investigations have established that, under identical test conditions, hearing-impaired listeners have more difficulty than normal-hearing listeners understanding speech in noise. Using an adaptive strategy, the effect of mild sensorineural hearing loss on speech recognition in babble was evaluated and the extent of the interaction of mild hearing loss with adult listeners' chronological age was examined. The signal-to-babble ratio required to achieve 50% recognition was measured for three speech materials presented at 56, 72, and 88 dB SPL; likewise, performance without babble was measured. Four sets of subjects (N = 18, each set) were tested: normal-hearing listeners 65 years of age, and hearing-impaired subjects 65 years. Subjects were selected so that age-group audiograms were closely matched. For results in babble, a consistent and statistically significant difference was demonstrated between the groups differentiated by age and by hearing loss, while only the latter effect was present in the absence of babble. Significant differences in articulation indices (AIs) between the two age groups were found for results in babble only, while no differences in AIs were seen between the two hearing loss groups under either listening condition. [Work supported by NINCDS.]