A "Goldilocks" Approach to Hearing-Aid Self-Fitting: User Interactions

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate user reactions to custom software designed for self-adjustment of amplification.

"Goldilocks" software was developed to allow user exploration and selection of preferred levels of overall output, low-frequency cut, and high-frequency boost while listening to preprocessed speech. Thirteen hearing-aid users and 13 nonusers self-adjusted before and after taking a speech perception test incorporated into the software.

All 26 participants were able to complete the 2 adjustments and the intervening test in an average of 6.5 min-20 of them from on-screen instructions without experimenter help. Relative to a generic starting condition, the average participant opted to increase overall output, reduce low-frequency cut, and increase high-frequency boost. The first and second self-selected values were highly correlated, but there was evidence of further increases of overall volume and high-frequency boost after speech perception testing with the initial adjustment. There was no evidence that prior hearing-aid experience affected the ability to understand or complete the self-fitting process.

This approach to hearing-aid self-fitting can be a speedy, reliable, and feasible alternative to, or supplement to, conventional fitting procedures, but many questions remain to be answered.