Beechey Timothy, Buchholz Jörg M, Keidser Gitte
The HEARing Cooperative Research Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2020 Apr 27;63(4):1299-1311. doi: 10.1044/2020_JSLHR-19-00350. Epub 2020 Apr 7.
Objectives This study investigates the hypothesis that hearing aid amplification reduces effort within conversation for both hearing aid wearers and their communication partners. Levels of effort, in the form of speech production modifications, required to maintain successful spoken communication in a range of acoustic environments are compared to earlier reported results measured in unaided conversation conditions. Design Fifteen young adult normal-hearing participants and 15 older adult hearing-impaired participants were tested in pairs. Each pair consisted of one young normal-hearing participant and one older hearing-impaired participant. Hearing-impaired participants received directional hearing aid amplification, according to their audiogram, via a master hearing aid with gain provided according to the NAL-NL2 fitting formula. Pairs of participants were required to take part in naturalistic conversations through the use of a referential communication task. Each pair took part in five conversations, each of 5-min duration. During each conversation, participants were exposed to one of five different realistic acoustic environments presented through highly open headphones. The ordering of acoustic environments across experimental blocks was pseudorandomized. Resulting recordings of conversational speech were analyzed to determine the magnitude of speech modifications, in terms of vocal level and spectrum, produced by normal-hearing talkers as a function of both acoustic environment and the degree of high-frequency average hearing impairment of their conversation partner. Results The magnitude of spectral modifications of speech produced by normal-hearing talkers during conversations with aided hearing-impaired interlocutors was smaller than the speech modifications observed during conversations between the same pairs of participants in the absence of hearing aid amplification. Conclusions The provision of hearing aid amplification reduces the effort required to maintain communication in adverse conditions. This reduction in effort provides benefit to hearing-impaired individuals and also to the conversation partners of hearing-impaired individuals. By considering the impact of amplification on both sides of dyadic conversations, this approach contributes to an increased understanding of the likely impact of hearing impairment on everyday communication.
目的 本研究调查以下假设：助听器放大功能可减少助听器佩戴者及其交流伙伴在对话中的努力程度。将在一系列声学环境中维持成功口语交流所需的以语音产生调整形式呈现的努力程度，与先前在未使用助听器的对话条件下测得的结果进行比较。
设计 15名年轻成年听力正常参与者和15名老年成年听力受损参与者成对进行测试。每对由一名年轻听力正常参与者和一名老年听力受损参与者组成。听力受损参与者根据其听力图，通过一台按照NAL-NL2拟合公式提供增益的主助听器接受定向助听器放大。要求成对的参与者通过使用参照性交流任务进行自然对话。每对参与者进行五次对话，每次持续5分钟。在每次对话期间，参与者通过高度开放式耳机接触五种不同的逼真声学环境之一。各实验块中声学环境的顺序是伪随机的。对得到的对话语音录音进行分析，以确定听力正常的谈话者在语音水平和频谱方面产生的语音调整幅度，该幅度是声学环境及其对话伙伴高频平均听力损失程度的函数。
结果 听力正常的谈话者在与佩戴助听器的听力受损对话者交谈时产生的语音频谱调整幅度，小于同一对参与者在未使用助听器放大的情况下交谈时观察到的语音调整幅度。
结论 提供助听器放大功能可减少在不利条件下维持交流所需的努力。这种努力程度的降低对听力受损个体及其听力受损个体的对话伙伴都有益处。通过考虑放大功能在二元对话双方的影响，这种方法有助于增进对听力损失可能对日常交流产生的影响的理解。
