title: Measurement of speech quality as a tool to optimize the fitting of a hearing aid.
abstract: The purpose of the present research was to develop a theoretical basis for the adjustment of hearing aid frequency response based on speech quality measurements. Speech quality measurements were made using continuous discourse and a category rating procedure for the following dimensions: intelligibility, pleasantness, loudness, effort, noisiness, and total impression. Speech quality ratings were obtained from a group of listeners with hearing loss who wore hearing aids. The stimulus conditions simulated hearing aid frequency response alterations within a frequency response range where intelligibility was held constant at or near 100%. The subject ratings revealed that (a) different listeners interpreted the individual dimensions in different ways; (b) within listeners, most of the dimensions were unique; that is, they were rated differently; and (c) across listeners, pleasantness was the dimension most highly correlated with total impression.
authors.affiliation: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA.
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Preminger
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Van Tasell
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001844:Bone Conduction; D012048:Correction of Hearing Impairment; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D017755:Prosthesis Fitting; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013060:Speech; D013065:Speech Intelligibility