Contribution
How an Individuals Hearing Affects an Entire Conversation
* Presenting author
Abstract:
Recently, hearing research has shifted towards testing hearing and hearing aids in more ecologically relevant communication situations. Our group has conducted several studies highlighting how hearing impairment and hearing aid features affect both subjective and objective measures of conversations (Petersen et al. 2022, 2024, Petersen 2024, Nicoras et al. 2022). In this summary, I will focus on our findings, particularly regarding changes in speech levels.It is well-established that increased speech levels occur when conversing in noisy environments (the Lombard effect). We have demonstrated how communication difficulties, such as talking with a hearing-impaired conversation partner and whether this partner has adequate hearing-aid processing, also influence conversational speech levels. In this presentation, we will show that speech levels are sensitive to changes in hearing aid features experienced by a single interlocutor in both two- and three-person conversations. This influence underscores that the success of a conversation is a shared responsibility among all participants and is affected by each individual’s experience.