Binaural advantages in a real-world environment on speech intelligibility, response time, and subjective listening difficulty

This study examined the speech-related advantages of binaural listening for individuals conversing in a noisy restaurant. Young, normal-hearing adults were tested in groups of four during monaural and binaural listening conditions. Monosyllabic word stimuli were presented in a closed-set format. Speech intelligibility, response time (RT), and self-reported difficulty were measured. Results showed a speech intelligibility advantage of 17%, a 0.26 s decrease in RT, and a reduction in reported difficulty in binaural compared to monaural listening. These data suggest the binaural advantage obtained in real-world settings compares favorably with that observed in the laboratory, indicating that speech testing in laboratories approximates real-world performance.