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Speech Intelligibility as a Cue for Acceptable Noise Levels.
Karrie L Recker1, Christophe Micheyl
1Starkey Hearing Technologies, Audiology Research, Eden Prairie, Minneapolis, USA.
Ear and Hearing
|February 8, 2017
Summary
Listeners with normal hearing use speech intelligibility to decide how much background noise they accept. Hearing-impaired individuals do not consistently use this cue, suggesting different strategies for noise tolerance.
Area of Science:
- Audiology
- Psychoacoustics
- Speech Perception
Background:
- Acceptable noise levels (ANLs) predict hearing aid success.
- Understanding the criteria for noise tolerance can improve hearing aid outcomes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if individuals use speech intelligibility to set their acceptable noise levels.
- To explore potential differences in noise tolerance criteria between normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners.
Main Methods:
- Modified Acceptable Noise Level (ANL) test with fixed speech levels and adjustable noise.
- Calculation of Speech Intelligibility Index (SII) scores across conditions.
- Comparison of SII consistency across participants with normal hearing and hearing loss.
Main Results:
- Normal-hearing listeners generally maintained consistent SIIs, indicating intelligibility-based criteria.
- Listeners with hearing loss showed increasing SIIs with speech level, suggesting other criteria were used.
- Significant differences in noise tolerance criteria were observed between the two groups.
Conclusions:
- Most normal-hearing individuals appear to use speech intelligibility when determining acceptable background noise.
- Listeners with hearing impairment do not consistently rely on speech intelligibility for this judgment.
- Further research is needed to identify the cues used by hearing-impaired individuals to set noise tolerance.
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