title: Effects of age and mild hearing loss on speech recognition in noise.
abstract: Using an adaptive strategy, the effects of mild sensorineural hearing loss and adult listeners' chronological age on speech recognition in babble were evaluated. The signal-to-babble ratio required to achieve 50% recognition was measured for three speech materials presented at soft to loud conversational speech levels. Four groups of subjects were tested: (1) normal-hearing listeners less than 44 years of age, (2) subjects less than 44 years old with mild sensorineural hearing loss and excellent speech recognition in quiet, (3) normal-hearing listeners greater than 65 with normal hearing, and (4) subjects greater than 65 years old with mild hearing loss and excellent performance in quiet. Groups 1 and 3, and groups 2 and 4 were matched on the basis of pure-tone thresholds, and thresholds for each of the three speech materials presented in quiet. In addition, groups 1 and 2 were similar in terms of mean age and age range, as were groups 3 and 4. Differences in performance in noise as a function of age were observed for both normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners despite equivalent performance in quiet. Subjects with mild hearing loss performed significantly worse than their normal-hearing counterparts. These results and their implications are discussed.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009622:Noise; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D013067:Speech Perception