Abstract
Duquesnoy [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 74, 739–743 (1983)] found that elderly subjects with hearing loss do not take advantage of the separation of speech and noise sources to the same degree as young normals. However, it is not clear whether this finding was due to aging and/or the hearing loss. We addressed this issue using a sentence reception threshold (SRT) test developed by modifying the SPIN test, which produces data comparable to those obtained with the Dutch sentences. Here SRTs were obtained from young and elderly normal hearing subjects and an elderly hearing impaired group using sentences and noise presented from one speaker or from two speakers 90° apart. The impaired group performed more poorly than the normal groups in all conditions. The advantage derived from separating the speech and noise compared to presenting them from the same speaker was smaller for the impaired group than for the normal groups. The normal groups did not differ significantly. The reduced ability of the elderly hearing impaired subjects to take advantage of the separation of speech and noise appears to depend more on the hearing loss than aging, per se. [Work supported by the Veterans Administration.]
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