Effects of Hearing-Aid Performance on Monosyllabic Discrimination Scores

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of hearing-aid performance on Japanese monosyllabic discrimination scores in noise. The subjects were 10 adults with mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss. A 50-item monosyllabic discrimination test was administered repeatedly with the use of three behind-the-ear type hearing aids with different frequency-gain characteristics. Speech spectrum noise was applied as a competing noise at the S/N ratio of +10dB. Main results were as follows:
1) Regarding to the group data, mean percentage correct of monosyllabic discrimination scores did not show significant differences among the three hearing aids.
2) The individual data showed that three of the subjects made significantly higher discrimination scores with the broad-band flat amplification characteristics.
3) For the discrimination of voiceless consonants in noise, the high-pass filtering type amplification and also the broad-band flat type amplification were significantly effective.
4) For the discrimination of voiced consonants in noise, the high-pass filtering type of amplification was significantly inferior to others.
5) The subjective evaluation of the hearing aids consistently showed that the broad-band flat type amplification was evaluated as “the easiest to listen” and the high-pass filtering type amplification “the uneasiest to listen”.