Abstract
While normal-hearing (NH) listeners demonstrate better speech intelligibility for fluctuating-masker than for stationary-noise conditions, hearing-impaired (HI) listeners generally show little or no fluctuating-masker benefit (FMB). This result has been interpreted in terms of suprathreshold deficits (e.g., reduced spectral or temporal resolution or distorted stream-segregation cues) that limit ?dip-listening?. However, reduced FMB for HI listeners might instead be attributable to audibility limitations or to differences between the signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) at which NH and HI listeners are tested. This study examined this issue by equalizing stationary-noise performance to allow measurements at a common SNR, equalizing audibility, and presenting identical signals to pairs of NH and HI listeners. Audibility was equalized using linear gain, low-pass filtering (4 kHz) and intensity filtering to remove speech-signal elements below the HI audiometric threshold. Nonsense-syllable identification performance in stationary noise was equalized by adjusting the response set size. Stationary-noise trials (adapting set size) were interleaved with fluctuating-masker trials (adapting SNR), ensuring stable stationary-noise performance throughout the test. Fluctuating maskers included low- and high-rate modulated noise, speech-modulated noise and an interfering-talker condition. Results determine whether and under which conditions the HI listeners demonstrate reduced FMB not attributable to SNR or audibility effects.
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