Effects of noise and hearing loss upon frequency discrimination.
Frequency discrimination in quiet and in the presence of several levels of low-frequency masking noise was measured at 500, 1,000 and 2,000 Hz in both normal-hearing and hearing-impaired subjects. The test signals were presented at 80 dB SPL; all test signals were at least 10 dB above each subject's masked threshold. As a group, the hearing impaired subjects had larger frequency difference limens than the normal subjects, especially in frequency regions of greatest sensitivity loss. The masking noise produced a similar increase in frequency difference limens in both groups. Although several previous speech recognition studies have demonstrated an interactive effect between the presence of hearing loss and masking noise, the results of the present study demonstrate that frequency discrimination performance for normal-hearing and hearing-impaired subjects is not differentially affected by the addition of masking noise.
Turner
C W
CW
Communication Sciences and Disorders, Syracuse University, N.Y.
D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006320:Hearing Tests / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D009622:Noise