Effects of Reverberation on the Relation Between Compression Speed and Working Memory for Speech-in-Noise Perception.
Paul Reinhart, Pavel Zahorik, Pamela Souza
PMID 31025984WHAT IT FOUND
Working memory changed which simulated hearing aid compression speed gave better speech-in-noise scores.
High working memory favored fast compression, low working memory favored slow compression. The pattern was present in quiet and mild reverberation, then disappeared at higher reverberation.
Key findings
01The high and low working memory groups differed in their fast versus slow compression performance at 0.00 and 0.75 seconds, but not at 1.50 or 3.00 seconds.
02Working memory explained 35% of the variance in performance at 0.00 seconds of reverberation.
03Working memory explained 31.5% of the variance in performance at 0.75 seconds, but was not a significant predictor at 1.50 or 3.00 seconds.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study tested 28 older adults who were not current hearing aid users, so it does not show how real hearing aid users would perform. Compression speed and reverberation were simulated in a laboratory, not measured in everyday rooms or commercial hearing aids. Only one-talker modulated noise and low-context sentences were used, so results may not apply to other noise types or meaningful conversation. Participants were not blinded to compression speed, and block order was randomized only across conditions. The high and low working memory groups were split at a 41% reading span cut-off, which was based on earlier work rather than a clinical standard.
Declared interests
The supplied text does not include a conflict of interest statement. The publication types list N.I.H. Extramural research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that working memory testing should guide hearing aid compression speed in every noisy room. The effect appeared only in simulated 0.00 and 0.75 second reverberation conditions, and it was absent at 1.50 and 3.00 seconds.