Individual differences in self-adjustment of hearing aid amplification

Abstract

Listening in noisy environments remains a common complaint among hearing aid users. Self-adjustment of amplification parameters could improve listener satisfaction in noise. Previous data (Nelson et al., AAS 2015) indicated considerable variability among hearing-impaired listeners when self-adjusting amplification in noisy environments, but the sources of variability are not understood. Data will be presented from 30 adult listeners with mild to moderate hearing loss who self-adjusted amplification parameters in laboratory-simulated restaurant environments. Participants listened using a real-time simulation of a multichannel compression hearing aid and adjusted gain/compression parameters via a simple user interface (EarMachine). On average, listeners selected less gain relative to NAL-NL2 targets, and they reduced gain as noise levels increased. Hearing loss did not predict variation in self-selected amplification. Small but significant gender differences were observed. Female subjects selected more high-frequency gain (2000–8000 Hz) but less low-frequency gain than male subjects. Listeners with prior hearing-aid experience selected more high-frequency gain than listeners with no hearing-aid experience. Younger age was associated with selecting more low-frequency gain. Within-group variability was large compared to mean differences between groups and only a small proportion of variance was explained. These data suggest that self-adjustment of amplification was not easily predicted by listener-specific factors.