Relation Between Listening Effort and Speech Intelligibility in Noise

Area of Science:

• Audiology
• Speech and Hearing Sciences
• Psychoacoustics

Background:

• Subjective listening effort may indicate hearing difficulties even when speech intelligibility is high.
• Evaluating hearing aid benefits requires methods sensitive to varying signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs).

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare subjective listening effort ratings with speech intelligibility scores across different SNRs.
• To assess the efficacy of hearing aids using both measures.

Main Methods:

• Two listener groups (normal hearing and hearing impaired) underwent adaptive speech intelligibility and listening effort tests.
• The Adaptive Categorical Listening Effort Scaling (ACLES) method was employed with the Oldenburg Sentence Test in various maskers.
• Model functions estimated speech reception thresholds and listening effort ratings for "extreme effort" and "no effort" conditions.

Main Results:

• Listeners with hearing impairment reported higher listening effort than those with normal hearing.
• For impaired listeners, "extreme effort" ratings (negative SNRs) correlated better with speech reception thresholds than "no effort" ratings (positive SNRs).
• Hearing aid benefits were significant for speech intelligibility at negative SNRs, but listening effort effects showed considerable individual variability, particularly at positive SNRs.

Conclusions:

• Adaptive subjective listening effort rating provides additional information beyond speech intelligibility for assessing hearing impairments.
• This approach offers a more nuanced evaluation of hearing aid performance across different listening conditions.