Predicting the effect of hearing loss and audibility on amplified speech reception in a multi-talker listening scenario

Abstract

Auditive and cognitive influences on speech perception in a complex situation were investigated in listeners with normal hearing (NH) and hearing loss (HL). The speech corpus used was the Nonsense-Syllable Response Measure [NSRM; Woods and Kalluri, (2010). International Hearing Aid Research Conference, pp. 40-41], a 12-talker corpus which combines 154 nonsense syllables with 8 different carrier phrases. Listeners heard NSRM sentences in quiet, background noise, and in background noise plus other "jammer" NSRM sentences. All stimuli were linearly amplified. A "proficiency" value, determined from the results in quiet and the quiet-condition speech intelligibility index (SII), was used with the SII in predicting results in the other conditions. Results for nine of ten NH subjects were well-predicted (within the limits of binomial variability) in the noise condition, as were eight of these subjects in the noise-plus-jammers condition. All 16 HL results were well-predicted in the noise condition, as were 9 of the HL in the noise-plus-jammers condition. Hierarchical regression partialling out the effects of age found proficiency in noise-plus-jammers significantly correlated with results of "trail-making" tests, thought to index processing speed and attention-deployment ability, and proficiency in quiet and noise was found significantly correlated with results from a backward digit-span memory test.