Effects of reducing low-frequency amplification on consonant perception in quiet and noise.
The aim of this study was to assess the effect of low-frequency amplification on speech recognition performance by hearing-impaired listeners. Consonant identification performance by subjects with flat hearing losses and high-frequency hearing losses was assessed in three different hearing aid conditions, in quiet and noise. The experimental hearing aids all provided extra high-frequency amplification but differed in the amount of low-frequency amplification. The results showed that listeners with flat hearing losses benefited by low-frequency amplification, whereas subjects with high-frequency hearing losses exhibited deteriorating scores in conditions with greatest low-frequency amplification. Analyses of phonetic feature perception and individual consonant recognition scores revealed subtle interactions between hearing loss configuration and amplification contour.
D000669:Amplifiers, Electronic; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006316:Hearing Loss, High-Frequency / Q000534:rehabilitation; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D009622:Noise; D010700:Phonetics; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013067:Speech Perception