Marrone Nicole, Mason Christine R, Kidd Gerald
Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences and the Hearing Research Center, Boston University, 635 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
J Acoust Soc Am. 2008 Nov;124(5):3064-75. doi: 10.1121/1.2980441.
This study investigated the interaction between hearing loss, reverberation, and age on the benefit of spatially separating multiple masking talkers from a target talker. Four listener groups were tested based on hearing status and age. On every trial listeners heard three different sentences spoken simultaneously by different female talkers. Listeners reported keywords from the target sentence, which was presented at a fixed and known location. Maskers were colocated with the target or presented from spatially separated and symmetrically placed loudspeakers, creating a situation with no simple "better-ear." Reverberation was also varied. The target-to-masker ratio at threshold for identification of the fixed-level target was measured by adapting the level of the maskers. On average, listeners with hearing loss showed less spatial release from masking than normal-hearing listeners. Age was a significant factor although small differences in hearing sensitivity across age groups may have contributed to this effect. Spatial release was reduced in the more reverberant room condition but in most cases a significant advantage remained. These results provide evidence for a large benefit of spatial separation in a multitalker situation that is likely due to perceptual factors. However, this benefit is significantly reduced by both hearing loss and reverberation.
本研究调查了听力损失、混响和年龄之间的相互作用对将多个掩蔽说话者与目标说话者在空间上分离所带来益处的影响。根据听力状况和年龄对四组听众进行了测试。在每次试验中，听众会同时听到不同女性说话者说出的三个不同句子。听众报告目标句子中的关键词，目标句子在一个固定且已知的位置呈现。掩蔽声与目标声位于同一位置，或者由空间上分离且对称放置的扬声器发出，从而营造出一种不存在简单“较好耳”的情况。混响也有所变化。通过调整掩蔽声的电平来测量识别固定电平目标时的阈值处的目标 - 掩蔽比。平均而言，听力损失的听众相比于听力正常的听众，在掩蔽方面的空间解脱较少。年龄是一个显著因素，尽管不同年龄组之间听力敏感度的微小差异可能也促成了这种效应。在混响更严重的房间条件下，空间解脱有所减少，但在大多数情况下仍存在显著优势。这些结果为在多说话者情境中空间分离带来的巨大益处提供了证据，这种益处可能归因于感知因素。然而，听力损失和混响都会显著降低这种益处。
