Contribution
Investigating Speech Intelligibility While (Un)Knowingly Listening Through Transparent Hearing Aids
* Presenting author
Abstract:
The present study examines the effect of awareness of wearing transparent hearing aids on speech intelligibility. Additionally, the listening effort was assessed using listeners’ self-ratings and pupillometry. The primary focus was whether awareness of wearing hearing aids influences the 'hearing aid disadvantage', i.e., a negative effect of hearing aids on speech intelligibility and listening effort. Previous studies suggest that this effect may not be solely attributable to the altered acoustic transmission but could additionally be influenced by psychological factors. The present study therefore aims to investigate the extent to which awareness of wearing hearing aids affects the hearing aid disadvantage. Normal-hearing participants (N = 24, age = 23.4 years) were tested in various listening scenarios in a controlled environment. Each half of these scenarios employed direct sound presentation, or listening through a head and torso simulator. Within both environments, three conditions were evaluated: open ear and wearing transparent hearing aids with and without optimal equalization. The findings suggest that awareness of wearing hearing aids has no significant impact on speech intelligibility. However, the results for listening effort are less clear. Our findings suggest that psychological effects on the hearing aid disadvantage are not obvious and may require more sensitive metrics.