It is well established that modern directional microphones in hearing aids provide listeners with an improved speech understanding in noise. De-spite this, the impact of directional microphones in real life conditions is limited. In fact, hearing in noise remains one of the biggest problems for hearing aid users. Fortunately, recent developments in super-directional technology, at least in laboratory settings, promise to deliver significant benefits to hearing aid users. Experiments suggest large improvements in speech understanding in noise and significant preference for highly directional systems. This advantage is often extrapolated to suggest equal advantages in real world listening situations. However, it is increasingly apparent that hearing in noise entails various complex tasks for the listener. Consequently, super-directional technology may be advantageous in some situations but may also have some limitations in its usage. Here we present a discussion of super-directional microphone technology based on several studies. In our research we have examined various factors that influence benefit such as beam width design, adaptation speed, preservation of spatial cues, vent sizes, acoustic scene, and reverberation. Our evidence appears to be confounded by individual characteristics of the listener such as age, hearing loss, personality traits, and cognition. All these factors combined will guide our discussions and thoughts about future research and development of super-directional systems.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

This sessions covers a wide range of topics related to the selection and fitting of hearing aids. Areas addressed extend also to the technical operation of hearing aid amplification parameters and components. In general, the session proceeds through five steps pertaining to the hearing aid fitting process covering identification of the candidate, measurements prior to selection, selection, verification and validation. The session addresses a number of specific points within each of the steps regarding specific patient assessments, patient characteristics, hearing aid amplification parameters, hearing aid measurements and outcome measurements. The depth of coverage will offer a session of novel information, but the breadth of coverage will allow for the discussion of many topic areas of interest to audiologists fitting hearing aids in a variety of clinical settings.

No description available.