The Band-Importance Function for the Korean Standard Sentence Lists for Adults.
OBJECTIVE
The band-importance function (BIF) refers to a value characterizing the relative importance of different frequencies to speech intelligibility. The purpose of this study was to derive the BIF for the Korean standard sentence lists for adults (KS-SL-A).


METHODS
In this study, sentences from the KS-SL-A were used as the speech material. Twenty-six normal-hearing Korean listeners participated and intelligibility scores in 8 filters with 3 signal-to-noise ratio conditions were obtained. Based on the intelligibility score percentages, the BIF for the KS-SL-A was derived by using an established protocol.


RESULTS
Band-importance weights varied across frequency bands. The most important frequency region was around 316 Hz (20.0%), and the importance of the frequency bands below the center frequency (CF) of 1,778 Hz was 59.6%. Therefore, low frequencies below the CF of 1,778 Hz were more important than high frequencies above the CF of 1,778 Hz.


CONCLUSIONS
The BIF for KS-SL-A could be applied towards developing a hearing aid fitting formulae for Korean listeners.
Division of Speech Pathology and Audiology, Research Institute of Audiology and Speech Pathology, College of Natural Sciences, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Korea.
In-Ki
IK
Jin
Department of Audiology, Hallym University of Graduate Studies, Seoul, Korea.
Junghak
J
Lee
Department of Audiology, Hallym University of Graduate Studies, Seoul, Korea.
Kyoungwon
K
Lee
Division of Speech Pathology and Audiology, Research Institute of Audiology and Speech Pathology, College of Natural Sciences, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Korea.
Jinsook
J
Kim
Samsung Electronics, Mobile Communications Business, Yongin, Korea.
Dongwook
D
Kim
Samsung Electronics, Mobile Communications Business, Yongin, Korea.
Junil
J
Sohn
Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, Graduate School, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Korea.
Kyung-Ju
KJ
Lee
Band-importance function; Hearing aid fitting; Speech intelligibility