Individual Variability in Benefit from Fixed and Adaptive Directional Microphones

Abstract

This study aimed to document improvements in speech recognition when listening through fixed or adaptive directional microphone arrays relative to listening through omnidirectional microphone arrays in a variety of near-field noise conditions. Twelve participants with mild to severe hearing loss were recruited. Data were analyzed in a manner to facilitate discussion of both group and individual performance. The activation of directional microphones significantly improved speech recognition in all listening conditions when compared to omnidirectional listening conditions. Significant differences in speech recognition performance were not observed between fixed and adaptive directional microphone conditions. Analysis of individual outcomes shows a wide range of both absolute speech recognition scores and directional benefit across treatment conditions.