Abstract
This research investigates the effect of ear protectors on the intelligibility of speech in noise. The listeners are adults, 35–65 years old, with normal hearing, bilateral high frequency or flat loss between 500 and 4000 Hz. They may be fluent or poorly conversant with spoken English. Taped lists of 25 words are presented free field under a variety of conditions in which the signal-to-noise ratio (+5 and −5 dB), the spectrum of the background noise (white versus crowd), and the presence of ear protection are varied. Preliminary data indicate that in normal listeners the number of words correctly repeated decreases as signal-to-noise ratio decreases and that speech perception is poorer in noise than in quiet. When ear protectors are worn for speech presented in crowd noise some improvement in hearing is evident. In contrast, for this condition subjects with a high-frequency loss show a marked deterioration in performance. [Work supported by Ontario Min. Health.]
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