Hearing aid quality judgments in reverberant and nonreverberant environments using a magnitude estimation procedure.
Speech discrimination performance utilizing CID W-22 word lists and patient preferences for hearing aids were investigated. Preference judgments were made using the magnitude estimation procedure. 10 experienced hearing aid users served as subjects. Results revealed that speech discrimination using CID W-22 words was unable to differentiate among hearing aids which possessed similar electroacoustic characteristics. In contrast, the magnitude estimation quality judgment procedure was quite effective and reliable at differentiating among the hearing aids. Further, the magnitude estimation quality judgment procedure is able to provide numerous preference judgments about each hearing aid in a relatively short time. In addition, the magnitude estimation procedure has a major advantage over the paired-comparison quality judgment procedure in that the patient is able to actually wear the hearing aid during the magnitude estimation procedure.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D006310:Hearing Aids / Q000592:standards*; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000534:rehabilitation; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D013063:Speech Discrimination Tests; D013067:Speech Perception