Comments on "compression? Yes, but for low or high frequencies, for low or high intensities, and with what response times?" Dillon, H. (1996), Ear and Hearing, 17, 287-307.
Harvey Dillon discusses the effect of compression on understanding speech in noise in terms of the effect on the signal to noise ratio. The most common noise with which hearing-impaired persons must contend is competing speech, and the only practical computer smart enough to separate such interference from the target speech is the human brain, using its capacity for "selective listening." Hearing aids with full-dynamic-range compression and frequency-response shaping, by restoring redundant speech cues that the hearing-impaired person no longer hears because of recruitment and high-frequency loss, can empower the user's ability to listen selectively, at the expense of degrading the signal to noise ratio under some conditions.
Villchur
E
E
D006310:Hearing Aids; D006801:Humans; D009622:Noise; D013063:Speech Discrimination Tests; D013067:Speech Perception