The purpose of this mixed model design was to examine recognition performance differences
when measuring speech recognition in multitalker babble on listeners with normal hearing
(n = 36) and listeners with hearing loss (n = 72) utilizing stimulus of varying linguistic
complexity (digits, words, and sentence materials). All listeners were administered
two trials of two lists of each material in a descending speech-to-babble ratio. For
each of the materials, recognition performances by the listeners with normal hearing
were significantly better than the performances by the listeners with hearing loss.
The mean separation between groups at the 50% point in signal-to-babble ratio on each
of the three materials was ~8 dB. The 50% points for digits were obtained at a significantly
lower signal-to-babble ratio than for sentences or words that were equivalent. There
were no interlist differences between the two lists for the digits and words, but
there was a significant disparity between QuickSIN™ lists for the listeners with hearing
loss. A two-item questionnaire was used to obtain a subjective measurement of speech
recognition, which showed moderate correlations with objective measures of speech
recognition in noise using digits (r = .641), sentences (r = .572), and words (r =
.673).
Key Words
Auditory perception - hearing loss - speech perception - word recognition in multitalker
babble
