Effects of Amplification and Hearing Aid Experience on the Contribution of Specific Frequency Bands to Loudness.

The study used very small groups: 8 listeners with hearing loss and 7 with normal hearing in Experiment 1, and only 6 first-time hearing aid users in Experiment 2. Experiment 1 tested mainly experienced hearing aid users, so it does not show what happens in the first months of hearing aid use. The hearing aid condition was a simulator, not the participants' own hearing aids, and it used noise bands rather than speech or everyday sounds. The amplification was set to DSL Adult targets, so the results may not apply to other fitting formulas such as NAL-NL2. Presentation level and frequency-specific amplification were hard to separate in the aided condition, so the high-frequency weighting may reflect louder overall sound rather than the hearing aid response alone. The noise bands were not equal in perceptual bandwidth, and bandwidth may have influenced loudness weighting. The perceptual weight task measured relative frequency contributions, not absolute loudness tolerance, so it may not detect acclimatization.

The authors declared no financial conflicts of interest. The article is listed as supported by N.I.H. Extramural funding.

Do not conclude that reducing high-frequency gain will fix loudness complaints. The study measured loudness judgments in a laboratory task and did not test a hearing aid adjustment strategy.