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Perceived Sound Quality Dimensions Influencing Frequency-Gain Shaping Preferences for Hearing Aid-Amplified Speech and Music

Hearing aids are typically fitted using speech-based prescriptive formulae to make speech more intelligible. Individual preferences may vary from these prescriptions and may also vary with signal type. It is important to consider what motivates listener preferences and how those preferences can info...

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Autores principales: Vaisberg, Jonathan M., Beaulac, Steve, Glista, Danielle, Macpherson, Ewan A., Scollie, Susan D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7876583/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33563136
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2331216521989900
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author Vaisberg, Jonathan M.
Beaulac, Steve
Glista, Danielle
Macpherson, Ewan A.
Scollie, Susan D.
author_facet Vaisberg, Jonathan M.
Beaulac, Steve
Glista, Danielle
Macpherson, Ewan A.
Scollie, Susan D.
author_sort Vaisberg, Jonathan M.
collection PubMed
description Hearing aids are typically fitted using speech-based prescriptive formulae to make speech more intelligible. Individual preferences may vary from these prescriptions and may also vary with signal type. It is important to consider what motivates listener preferences and how those preferences can inform hearing aid processing so that assistive listening devices can best be tailored for hearing aid users. Therefore, this study explored preferred frequency-gain shaping relative to prescribed gain for speech and music samples. Preferred gain was determined for 22 listeners with mild sloping to moderately severe hearing loss relative to individually prescribed amplification while listening to samples of male speech, female speech, pop music, and classical music across low-, mid-, and high-frequency bands. Samples were amplified using a fast-acting compression hearing aid simulator. Preferences were determined using an adaptive paired comparison procedure. Listeners then rated speech and music samples processed using prescribed and preferred shaping across different sound quality descriptors. On average, low-frequency gain was significantly increased relative to the prescription for all stimuli and most substantially for pop and classical music. High-frequency gain was decreased significantly for pop music and male speech. Gain adjustments, particularly in the mid- and high-frequency bands, varied considerably between listeners. Music preferences were driven by changes in perceived fullness and sharpness, whereas speech preferences were driven by changes in perceived intelligibility and loudness. The results generally support the use of prescribed amplification to optimize speech intelligibility and alternative amplification for music listening for most listeners.
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spelling pubmed-78765832021-02-19 Perceived Sound Quality Dimensions Influencing Frequency-Gain Shaping Preferences for Hearing Aid-Amplified Speech and Music Vaisberg, Jonathan M. Beaulac, Steve Glista, Danielle Macpherson, Ewan A. Scollie, Susan D. Trends Hear Original Article Hearing aids are typically fitted using speech-based prescriptive formulae to make speech more intelligible. Individual preferences may vary from these prescriptions and may also vary with signal type. It is important to consider what motivates listener preferences and how those preferences can inform hearing aid processing so that assistive listening devices can best be tailored for hearing aid users. Therefore, this study explored preferred frequency-gain shaping relative to prescribed gain for speech and music samples. Preferred gain was determined for 22 listeners with mild sloping to moderately severe hearing loss relative to individually prescribed amplification while listening to samples of male speech, female speech, pop music, and classical music across low-, mid-, and high-frequency bands. Samples were amplified using a fast-acting compression hearing aid simulator. Preferences were determined using an adaptive paired comparison procedure. Listeners then rated speech and music samples processed using prescribed and preferred shaping across different sound quality descriptors. On average, low-frequency gain was significantly increased relative to the prescription for all stimuli and most substantially for pop and classical music. High-frequency gain was decreased significantly for pop music and male speech. Gain adjustments, particularly in the mid- and high-frequency bands, varied considerably between listeners. Music preferences were driven by changes in perceived fullness and sharpness, whereas speech preferences were driven by changes in perceived intelligibility and loudness. The results generally support the use of prescribed amplification to optimize speech intelligibility and alternative amplification for music listening for most listeners. SAGE Publications 2021-02-09 /pmc/articles/PMC7876583/ /pubmed/33563136 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2331216521989900 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Original Article
Vaisberg, Jonathan M.
Beaulac, Steve
Glista, Danielle
Macpherson, Ewan A.
Scollie, Susan D.
Perceived Sound Quality Dimensions Influencing Frequency-Gain Shaping Preferences for Hearing Aid-Amplified Speech and Music
title Perceived Sound Quality Dimensions Influencing Frequency-Gain Shaping Preferences for Hearing Aid-Amplified Speech and Music
title_full Perceived Sound Quality Dimensions Influencing Frequency-Gain Shaping Preferences for Hearing Aid-Amplified Speech and Music
title_fullStr Perceived Sound Quality Dimensions Influencing Frequency-Gain Shaping Preferences for Hearing Aid-Amplified Speech and Music
title_full_unstemmed Perceived Sound Quality Dimensions Influencing Frequency-Gain Shaping Preferences for Hearing Aid-Amplified Speech and Music
title_short Perceived Sound Quality Dimensions Influencing Frequency-Gain Shaping Preferences for Hearing Aid-Amplified Speech and Music
title_sort perceived sound quality dimensions influencing frequency-gain shaping preferences for hearing aid-amplified speech and music
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7876583/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33563136
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2331216521989900
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