Efficacy of the cued-listening task in the evaluation of binaural hearing aids.
To evaluate the efficacy of the cued-listening task (CLT) in the evaluation of binaural hearing aid performance, we tested 10 experienced binaural hearing aid users. Subjects listened for a speech target embedded in continuous discourse from either the right or left directions while simultaneously suppressing similar continuous discourse from the other direction. The task was carried out in the presence of multitalker babble from an overhead source. The target-to-babble ratio was always 0 dB. Testing was carried out in four conditions: (1) unaided; (2) aided in right ear; (3) aided in left ear; and (4) aided binaurally. Results showed that neither condition of monaural amplification was significantly better than the unaided condition. Under binaural amplification, however, there was a significant improvement in target recognition. Furthermore, this enhancement in performance was significantly greater when targets came from the right side than when they came from the left side.
Jerger
J
J
Division of Audiology & Speech Pathology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.
Darling
R
R
Florin
E
E
D000368:Aged; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D004007:Dichotic Listening Tests; D005260:Female; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013067:Speech Perception; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome