title: The effect of a carrier phrase on hearing aid amplification of single words in quiet.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A common method to assess the functional benefit of hearing aids is by measuring the performance-intensity curve of single words in quiet with and without hearing aids. Currently, virtually all hearing aids use signal processing, which may have a marked effect on gain as a function of time. Thus, hearing-aid behavior may be different for a word presented in isolation compared to the same word preceded by a carrier phrase, which is a closer replication of natural conversation. The present research was conducted to assess this difference.
  
  
  METHODS
  In a hearing-aid test box, speech materials were routed through hearing aids and the output was recorded with a 2cc coupler.
  
  
  METHODS
  Seven different hearing aids were programmed according to the manufacturer's fitting rules, using a given hearing loss.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Depending on the hearing aid, and the hearing-aid setting, differences in the overall level of the hearing-aid processed words ranged from 1.5 to 3.5 dB. Differences were due to slow attack times in amplitude compression.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although differences were small for most hearing aids, the use of a carrier phrase should be considered in speech intelligibility tests to ensure that hearing-aid performance closer reflects that in real life.
authors.affiliation: Department of ENT/Audiology and EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. n.versfeld@vumc.nl
authors.forename: Niek J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Versfeld
authors.forename: S Theo
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Goverts
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000465:Algorithms; D000669:Amplifiers, Electronic; D001302:Audiometry, Speech; D004867:Equipment Design; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006801:Humans; D008422:Materials Testing; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013065:Speech Intelligibility; D013067:Speech Perception; D013997:Time Factors