A Competing Voices Test for Hearing-Impaired Listeners Applied to Spatial Separation and Ideal Time-Frequency Masks.
Lars Bramsløw, Marianna Vatti, Rikke Rossing and 2 others
PMID 31104580WHAT IT FOUND
In 14 older hearing-impaired adults, a competing voices test with a text cue scored about 59% when talkers were mixed and about 85% when separated to the two ears.
The two ideal masks matched this.
Key findings
01The text cue was the most sensitive cue, showing about 59% in the mixed condition and about 85% in the separated conditions, an approximately 26 percentage point contrast.
02Both ideal mask types performed like perfect separation.
03Cueing the target before playback gave mean scores of 78%, compared with 60% after playback, but divided attention was not verified for all listeners.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Only 14 hearing-impaired adults took part, all aged 68 to 81 years, so the results may not apply to younger listeners or people with other hearing losses. No normal-hearing listeners were tested here, and age and hearing loss cannot be separated. The test used headphones with linear hearing loss compensation, not the listeners' own hearing aids, so it does not show everyday hearing aid benefit. The two sentences were not perfectly time aligned, and some listeners may have used safe strategies instead of dividing attention. The paper states this is not the final version of the competing voices test and tested only a few spatial conditions. All speech material was Danish, so the cue effects may not transfer directly to other languages.
Declared interests
The article is listed as supported by non-U.S. government research support. No author conflict declaration is given.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the 26 percentage point gain for the text cue as proof that a hearing aid setting will help patients. It was a lab test in 14 older hearing-impaired adults, no hearing aids were used, and the test is not final.