The effect of hearing loss on source-distance dependent speech intelligibility in rooms
Abstract
Westermann and Buchholz [(2015). J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
137(2), 757–767] found substantial improvements in speech reception
thresholds (SRTs) for normal hearing listeners in a reverberant auditorium
when the target talker was separated in distance from a two-talker
masker. This study applied similar methodology, but tested listeners
with a hearing impairment. On average, the participants received a 7 dB
benefit in SRTs when the target was fixed at 0.5m and the masker was
moved from 0.5 to 10 m. But when the target was moved away, the
SRTs increased by 5 dB. This indicates that hearing impaired listeners
have difficulties suppressing nearby maskers while focusing attention on
a far target.