title: A model for the speech-reception threshold in noise without and with a hearing aid.
abstract: This paper presents a summary of the main results of our current research programme on the speech-reception threshold for sentences as a function of the sound-pressure level of interfering noise. The experimental results agree with a simple quantitative model in which every hearing loss for speech is interpreted as the sum of a class-A loss (attenuation), characterized by a reduction in the levels of both speech signal and noise, and a class-D loss (distortion), comparable to a reduction in S/N ratio. The experiments confirm the model's prediction that a hearing aid can compensate for class-A hearing losses but, generally, not for class-D hearing losses. The implies that the problem of having difficulties in understanding speech in a noisy environment, which is the primary handicap of hearing-impaired subjects, is not solved by the hearing aid.
mesh_terms: D001302:Audiometry, Speech; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D006310:Hearing Aids; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006314:Hearing Loss, Conductive / Q000175:diagnosis; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D012001:Hyperacusis; D008144:Loudness Perception; D010469:Perceptual Distortion; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D013063:Speech Discrimination Tests; D013067:Speech Perception