Diss. Linköping : Univ., 2003.

Understanding speech in background noise is occasionally difficult for normal hearing listeners and is often impossible for the listener with sensorineural hearing loss. The ability to understand speech in noise depends upon multiple factors such as the characteristics of the speech signal, the signal-to-noise ratio, and the listener's degree of hearing impairment. A routine hearing evaluation usually does not provide ample information about a listener's functional communication abilities. The Hearing-in-Noise Test (HINT) developed by The House Ear Institute provides an efficient and reliable method for evaluating an individual's suprathreshold speech understanding ability in quiet and in noise. The purpose of this pilot study was to investigate monaural speech reception thresholds for sentences (RTS) in quiet and in noise using the standardized Hearing-in-Noise Test (HINT). Data was collected from one clinical setting using twenty-five subjects with bilateral normal hearing (WNL) and twenty subjects with bilaterally symmetrical sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). Subject age ranged from 40 to 65 years. The study results were generally in agreement with the HINT norms. It was concluded that administering the HINT monaurally under headphones could differentiate between normal hearing individuals and individuals with cochlear hearing loss. The SNHL group exhibited higher RTSs than the WNL group in both quiet and in noise. The mean RTS difference between the two groups in quiet was 14.56 dB while the mean RTS difference in noise was only 2.85 dB. Surprisingly, the difference between the two subject groups in quiet was greater than was expected.

The ability to understand speech in noise has a profound impact on everyday communication, but cannot be predicted on the basis of puretone thresholds and/or performance on tests of speech in quiet. The aim of this thesis was to develop an adaptive speech in noise test based on the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) that would be reliable and valid for speakers of New Zealand English (NZE). The methodology used followed the standard procedures for developing the HINT in a new language. Five hundred sentences of 5-7 syllables were collected from New Zealand children’s books and recorded by a native NZE speaker. Nine normal-hearing native NZE speakers aged 18-50 listened to three sets of 50 sentences at -2, -4 and -7 dB signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) in order to establish a performance-intensity (PI) function for these sentences. Three groups of 10 participants were scored on their performance on the sentences in 65 dBA speech-weighted noise at varying SNR. After each round of testing with a new group of participants, the SNR of each sentence was adjusted in order to get closer to 70% intelligibility for all sentences. Sentences that were too easy or difficult or did not respond to adjustments were discarded. Once the remaining 240 sentences were of approximately equal intelligibility, 24 phonemically matched lists of 10 sentences were formed and tested on 12 participants using the adaptive HINT software. The overall mean threshold was calculated as -6 dB, s.d=1.1 dB. The lists were combined to form 12 lists of 20 sentences which would become the NZHINT. Time delays meant that the collection of normative data could not be completed.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karolinska institutet, 2006. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

The purpose of the study was to determine whether hearing aids with binaural processing improve performance during a localization and a hearing in noise task. The study included 16 participants, ages 29 – 67, with bilateral, essentially symmetrical, sensorineural hearing loss who had no prior hearing aid experience. Participants were fit with Oticon Epoq XW hearing aids bilaterally and completed the localization and the hearing in noise task with three listening conditions: (1) without hearing aids (NO), (2) with hearing aids that were not linked (BIL), and (3) with hearing aids that were linked (BIN). For the localization task, 1.5 second pink noise bursts at 75 dB SPL were used as the stimulus. A 180° 11-speaker array was set up to the right or left side of the participants. A twelfth speaker on the contralateral side of the array introduced constant background pink noise at 65 dB SPL. Results revealed that participants performed the best with the NO condition, followed by BIL, then BIN. There was a significant difference between NO and BIL and NO and BIN. For the hearing in noise (HIN) task, sentences from the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) were used as target stimuli. Continuous discourse by one male and two female talkers were used as maskers. There were four masker conditions for this task: (1) signal at 0°, masker at 90° (S0-N90), (2) signal at 0°, masker at 180° (S0-N180), (3) signal at 0°, masker at 270° (S0-N270), and (4) signal at 0°, maskers at 90°, 180°, and 270° (S0-N90, 180, 270). Results revealed that there was no significant difference between listening conditions when all masker conditions were considered. When the one-masker conditions were included, there was a significant difference between the NO and BIL and the NO and BIN conditions with the best performance for BIL, followed by BIN, then NO. Results also revealed a significant difference between masker conditions with the best performance for S0-N270, next best for S0-N90, followed by S0-N180, then S0-N90, 180, 270. / text

Professional research project (Au.D.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 25 pages. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: Understanding speech in background noise is occasionally difficult for normal hearing listeners and is often impossible for the listener with sensorineural hearing loss. The ability to understand speech in noise depends upon multiple factors such as the characteristics of the speech signal, the signal-to-noise ratio, and the listener's degree of hearing impairment. A routine hearing evaluation usually does not provide ample information about a listener's functional communication abilities. The Hearing-in-Noise Test (HINT) developed by The House Ear Institute provides an efficient and reliable method for evaluating an individual's suprathreshold speech understanding ability in quiet and in noise. / ABSTRACT: The purpose of this pilot study was to investigate monaural speech reception thresholds for sentences (RTS) in quiet and in noise using the standardized Hearing-in-Noise Test (HINT). Data was collected from one clinical setting using twenty-five subjects with bilateral normal hearing (WNL) and twenty subjects with bilaterally symmetrical sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). Subject age ranged from 40 to 65 years. The study results were generally in agreement with the HINT norms. It was concluded that administering the HINT monaurally under headphones could differentiate between normal hearing individuals and individuals with cochlear hearing loss. The SNHL group exhibited higher RTSs than the WNL group in both quiet and in noise. The mean RTS difference between the two groups in quiet was 14.56 dB while the mean RTS difference in noise was only 2.85 dB. Surprisingly, the difference between the two subject groups in quiet was greater than was expected. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol. inst., 2004. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Thesis (M.A. (Communication Disorders))--Mahidol University, 1984.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1991.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1991.