Preferred overall loudness. I: Sound field presentation in the laboratory.
This study questions the basic assumption that prescriptive methods for nonlinear, wide dynamic range compression (WDRC) hearing aids should restore overall loudness to normal. Fifteen normal-hearing listeners and twenty-four hearing-impaired listeners (with mild to moderate hearing loss, twelve with and twelve without hearing aid experience) participated in laboratory tests. The participants first watched and listened to video sequences and rated how loud and how interesting the situations were. For the hearing-impaired participants, gain was applied according to the NAL-NL1 prescription. Despite the fact that the NAL-NL1 prescription led to less than normal overall calculated loudness, according to the loudness model of Moore and Glasberg (1997), the hearing-impaired participants rated loudness higher than the normal-hearing participants. The participants then adjusted a volume control to preferred overall loudness. Both normal-hearing and hearing-impaired participants preferred less than normal overall calculated loudness. The results from the two groups of hearing-impaired listeners did not differ significantly.
Smeds
Karolina
K
Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.
Keidser
Gitte
G
Zakis
Justin
J
Dillon
Harvey
H
Leijon
Arne
A
Grant
Frances
F
Convery
Elizabeth
E
Brew
Christopher
C
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006310:Hearing Aids; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D008144:Loudness Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics