title: An examination of speech reception thresholds measured in a simulated reverberant cafeteria environment.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  There is increasing demand in the hearing research community for the creation of laboratory environments that better simulate challenging real-world listening environments. The hope is that the use of such environments for testing will lead to more meaningful assessments of listening ability, and better predictions about the performance of hearing devices. Here we present one approach for simulating a complex acoustic environment in the laboratory, and investigate the effect of transplanting a speech test into such an environment.
  
  
  METHODS
  Speech reception thresholds were measured in a simulated reverberant cafeteria, and in a more typical anechoic laboratory environment containing background speech babble.
  
  
  METHODS
  The participants were 46 listeners varying in age and hearing levels, including 25 hearing-aid wearers who were tested with and without their hearing aids.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Reliable SRTs were obtained in the complex environment, but led to different estimates of performance and hearing-aid benefit from those measured in the standard environment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings provide a starting point for future efforts to increase the real-world relevance of laboratory-based speech tests.
authors: a National Acoustic Laboratories and the HEARing Cooperative Research Centre, Australian Hearing Hub, Macquarie University , Australia.|b Department of Speech , Language and Hearing Sciences, Boston University , Boston , USA.
authors: Virginia
authors: V
authors: Best
authors: a National Acoustic Laboratories and the HEARing Cooperative Research Centre, Australian Hearing Hub, Macquarie University , Australia.
authors: Gitte
authors: G
authors: Keidser
authors: a National Acoustic Laboratories and the HEARing Cooperative Research Centre, Australian Hearing Hub, Macquarie University , Australia.|c Audiology Section, Department of Linguistics , Australian Hearing Hub, Macquarie University , Australia.
authors: Jörg M
authors: JM
authors: Buchholz
authors: a National Acoustic Laboratories and the HEARing Cooperative Research Centre, Australian Hearing Hub, Macquarie University , Australia.
authors: Katrina
authors: K
authors: Freeston
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000162:Acoustics; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005160:Facility Design and Construction; D005260:Female; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006311:Hearing Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009038:Motion; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects*; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D019986:Persons with Hearing Disabilities / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D013016:Sound; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013067:Speech Perception; D013069:Speech Reception Threshold Test; D014732:Vibration; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Speech reception thresholds; hearing aids; hearing loss; real-world