Prediction of speech recognition from audibility in older listeners with hearing loss: Effects of age, amplification, and background noise

The extent to which audibility determines speech recognition depends on a number of signal and listener factors. This study focused on three factors: age, background noise modulation, and linear versus wide-dynamic compression amplification. Three audiometrically matched groups of older listeners with hearing loss were tested to determine at what age performance declined relative to that expected on the basis of audibility. Recognition fell below predicted scores by greater amounts as age increased. Scores were higher for steady versus amplitude-modulated noise. Scores for WDRC-amplified speech were slightly lower than for linearly amplified speech across all groups and noise conditions. We found no interaction between age and type of noise. The small reduction in scores for amplitude-modulated compared to steady noise and lack of age interaction suggests that the substantial deficit seen with age in multitalker babble for previous studies was due to some effect not elicited here, such as informational masking.