The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether five different brands of directional hearing aids would perform with the same efficiency. Using fifteen normal hearing subjects, the efficiency of the directionality of the aids was first evaluated by obtaining pure tone and. speech reception thresholds from both in front and behind each listener. To evaluate the hearing aids' effects on subjects' word discrimination ability, discrimination scores were obtained both in quiet and noise. Finally, each subject expressed his feelings regarding the performance of each aid using a rating scale.The results indicated there was a significant difference in the overall attenuation abilities of the aids, and the aids significantly attenuated some threshold conditions pore efficiently than others. The overall discrimination scores for the aids did not differ significantly, but all five aids provided a significantly higher score in quiet as compared to noise. The results of the subjective ratings indicated no significant differences among the five aids.

published_or_final_version / Speech and Hearing Sciences / Master / Master of Science in Audiology