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Interactions Among Reverberation, WDRC, and WM (Reinhart & Souza, 2016)
journal contribution
posted on 2022-02-23, 18:26 authored by Paul N. Reinhart, Pamela E. SouzaPurpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the
effects of varying wide dynamic range compression (WDRC)
release time on intelligibility and clarity of reverberant
speech. The study also considered the role of individual
working memory.
Method: Thirty older listeners with mild to moderately-severe sloping sensorineural hearing loss participated.
Individuals were divided into high and low working memory
groups on the basis of the results of a reading span test.
Participants listened binaurally to sentence stimuli
simulated at a range of reverberation conditions and
WDRC release times using a high compression ratio.
Outcome measures included objective intelligibility and
subjective clarity ratings.
Results: Speech intelligibility and clarity ratings both
decreased as a function of reverberation. The low working
memory group demonstrated a greater decrease in
intelligibility with increasing amounts of reverberation than
the high working memory group. Both groups, regardless
of working memory, had higher speech intelligibility and
clarity ratings with longer WDRC release times. WDRC release
time had a larger effect on speech intelligibility under more
reverberant conditions.
Conclusions: Reverberation significantly affects speech
intelligibility, particularly for individuals with lower working
memory. In addition, longer release times in hearing aids
may improve listener speech intelligibility and clarity in
reverberant environments.
