Effect of hearing aid experience on preferred insertion gain selection

The effect of hearing aid experience (measured as years of hearing aid use and user insertion gain at octave frequencies from 250 Hz to 4000 Hz) on the selection of preferred insertion gain under six listening conditions and one vocalization condition was examined. Thirteen experienced hearing aid users selected their preferred insertion gain in each test condition using a modified simplex procedure. The results showed that for the listening conditions, preferred insertion gain was highly correlated with the subjects' hearing loss from 500 Hz to 2000 Hz. Hearing aid experience did not correlate at all with preferred insertion gain. On the other hand, user insertion gain at 250 Hz and 500 Hz correlated highly with preferred insertion gain selected during vocalization. Years of hearing aid use did not correlate with preferred insertion gain selection. These results suggest that user insertion gain can affect preferred insertion gain selection only when the test conditions are identical to those that the hearing aid wearers experience in everyday lives. In typical laboratory conditions, preferred insertion gain is likely determined by the stimulus characteristics and subjective preference.