The Type of Noise Influences Quality Ratings for Noisy Speech in Hearing Aid Users

• Published in: Journal of speech, language, and hearing research Vol. 63; no. 12; pp. 4300 - 4313
• Main Authors: Lundberg, Emily M. H, Chon, Song Hui, Kates, James M, Anderson, Melinda C, Arehart, Kathryn H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Speech-Language-Hearing Association 01.12.2020
• Subjects: Acoustics; Aging (Individuals); Algorithms; Analysis; Assistive Technology; Auditory Perception; Auditory Stimuli; Communication Disorders; Conversation; Dining Facilities; Ears & hearing; Hearing; Hearing aids; Hearing disorders; Hearing impaired; Hearing Impairments; Hearing loss; Identification and classification; Influence; Listening; Noise; Older Adults; Older people; Perceptions; Physiological aspects; Rating Scales; Ratings & rankings; Sensorineural hearing loss; Severity (of Disability); Signal processing; Signal to noise ratio; Simulation; Sound; Speech; Speech, Intelligibility of; Stimuli; Tone color (Music); Colorado (Boulder); United States
• ISSN: 1092-4388; 1558-9102
• DOI: 10.1044/2020_JSLHR-20-00156

Purpose: The overall goal of the current study was to determine whether noise type plays a role in perceptual quality ratings. We compared quality ratings using various noise types and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) ranges using hearing aid simulations to consider the effects of hearing aid processing features. Method: Ten older adults with bilateral mild to moderately severe sensorineural hearing loss rated the sound quality of sentences processed through a hearing aid simulation and presented in the presence of five different noise types (six-talker babble, three-talker conversation, street traffic, kitchen, and fast-food restaurant) at four SNRs (3, 8, 12, and 20 dB). Results: Everyday noise types differentially affected sound quality ratings even when presented at the same SNR: Kitchen and three-talker noises were rated significantly higher than restaurant, traffic, and multitalker babble, which were not different from each other. The effects of noise type were most pronounced at poorer SNRs. Conclusions: The findings of this study showed that noise types differentially affected sound quality ratings. The differences we observed were consistent with the acoustic characteristics of the noise types. Noise types having lower envelope fluctuations yielded lower quality ratings than noise types characterized by sporadic high-intensity events at the same SNR.