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Abstract
Objectives: To describe the masking effect of a vocalized [a:] on noise bands and speech in persons with mild-to-moderate hearing impairment (HI). Design: The masked threshold of noise bands (250–8000 Hz), continuous discourse, and the amount of masking produced were determined. The maximal vocalization level was determined, that still allowed the subject to just follow the continuous discourse. Study sample: Twenty persons with sensory-neural HI, twelve with a high-frequency (HF) loss and eight with low-, mid-frequency or flat (LMF) loss. Results: The [a:] gave a significantly higher masked threshold at 70 and 80 dBA vocalization for subjects with HF loss than for normal-hearing (NH) subjects, and somewhat higher thresholds than for those with LMF loss. The amount of masking produced was significantly smaller for subjects with HI than NH. Conclusions: It is important to consider masking effects of self-produced sounds in auditory rehabilitation, and in the future design of hearing aids.
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by grants from Örebro University Hospital, Nyckelfonden, FAS (Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research), and The Swedish Institute of Disability Research. Presented at BNAM congress in Gothenburg November 2006 and at Jan Gauffin Memorial Symposium, Stockholm, October 2008, and partly as a Forum Report in Logopedics, Phoniatrics, and Vocology (Borg et al, Citation2009b).
Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.