Development of a Test Battery for Evaluating Speech Perception in Complex Listening Environments: Effects of Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Objective: To evaluate the speech-in-noise performance of listeners with different levels of hearing loss in a variety of complex listening environments. Design: The quick speech-in-noise (QuickSIN)-based test battery was used to measure the speech recognition performance of listeners with different levels of hearing loss. Subjective estimates of speech reception thresholds (SRTs) corresponding to 100% and 0% speech intelligibility, respectively, were obtained using a method of adjustment before objective measurement of the actual SRT corresponding to 50% speech intelligibility in every listening condition. Results: Of the seven alternative listening conditions, two conditions, one involving time-compressed, reverberant speech (TC+Rev), and the other (N₀S_π) having in-phase noise masker (N₀) and out-of-phase target (S_π), were found to be substantially more sensitive to the effect of hearing loss than the standard QuickSIN test. The performance in these two conditions also correlated with self-reported difficulties in attention/ concentration during speech communication and in localizing the sound source, respectively. Hearing thresholds could account for about 50% or less variance in SRTs in any listening condition. Subjectively estimated SRTs (SRTs corresponding to 0% and 100% speech intelligibility) were highly correlated with the objective SRT measurements (SRT corresponding to 50% speech intelligibility). Conclusions: A test battery that includes the TC+Rev and the N₀S_π conditions would be useful in identifying individuals with hearing loss with speech-in-noise deficits in everyday communication.