Relations between psychophysical measures of spatial hearing and self-reported spatial-hearing abilities

Area of Science:

• Auditory Neuroscience
• Psychophysics
• Audiology

Background:

• Assessing spatial hearing abilities is crucial for understanding real-world listening challenges.
• Virtual psychophysical measures offer a controlled environment to evaluate spatial hearing.
• The predictive validity of these virtual measures for self-reported abilities requires investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the extent to which virtual psychophysical measures of spatial hearing predict self-reported spatial hearing abilities.
• To identify specific virtual tests that are significant predictors of subjective spatial hearing outcomes.

Main Methods:

• Virtual spatial hearing tests (unaided, via headphones) and a questionnaire were administered across five European centers.
• Correlations and stepwise linear regression analyses were performed on data from 72 hearing-impaired listeners and 30 normal-hearing controls.
• Participants had diverse hearing loss profiles, including asymmetrical and mixed types.

Main Results:

• Significant correlations (0.24–0.54) were observed between virtual spatial hearing tests and self-reported localization abilities.
• The minimum audible angle (MAA) test significantly predicted self-reported localization abilities, explaining an additional 5% of the variance.
• The spatial speech reception threshold (SRT) benefit test predicted self-reported listening in spatial situations, explaining an additional 6% of the variance.

Conclusions:

• The MAA and spatial SRT benefit tests serve as valuable indicators of everyday binaural functioning.
• These virtual tests demonstrate potential in assessing aspects of real-world spatial hearing performance.
• The binaural SRT benefit test did not predict self-reported spatial hearing abilities in this study.