Study Results
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View full resultsBasic Information
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COMPLETED
NA
78 participants
INTERVENTIONAL
2006-09-30
2011-12-31
Brief Summary
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The hypothesis is that people with poor working memory skills will benefit from slow time constants in hearing aid compression while those with good working memory skills will be able to benefit from more sophisticated compression algorithms with rapid time constants.
Detailed Description
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1. Competition from continuous speech-shaped noise.
2. Competition from speech-modulated noise.
3. Competition from a single interfering talker.
The goals of the study will be accomplished in two phases. In the first phase, 160 adults aged 50 through 75 years will be evaluated on a battery of tests to determine their cognitive capacity, time-compressed speech scores and their candidacy for inclusion in the second phase of the study. At the conclusion of this phase of testing, the participants will be divided into three groups:
1. subjects with TCS test scores in the highest quartile (the HIGH group)
2. subjects with TCS test scores in the lowest quartile (the LOW group)
3. the remaining listeners
The second phase of the experiment will include listeners from the HIGH and LOW groups only. These subjects will be evaluated with respect to their speech recognition ability for three types of interference (steady-state noise, speech-modulated noise, single interfering talker). The HINT test (Nilsson, Soli, \& Sumida, 1995; Nilsson et al., 1994) will be used to obtain the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at 50% recognition for the three masking conditions for each of three types of amplification:
1. one- channel linear amplification (LINEAR) with frequency shaping
2. two-channel wide dynamic range compression with fast time constants (FAST)
3. two-channel wide dynamic range compression with slow time constants (SLOW) Listener groups will be compared across hearing aid conditions and across background interference conditions.
Conditions
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Keywords
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Study Design
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NON_RANDOMIZED
PARALLEL
TREATMENT
NONE
Study Groups
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Mild Hearing Loss
Audiological Evaluation will show average hearing threshold at 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz of 20-39 decibels hearing level (dBHL)
Audiological Evaluation
Tests of hearing, cognition, and speech perception
Moderate Hearing Loss
Audiological Evaluation will show average hearing threshold at 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz of 40-49 decibels hearing level (dBHL)
Audiological Evaluation
Tests of hearing, cognition, and speech perception
Moderate-Severe Hearing Loss
Audiological Evaluation will show average hearing threshold at 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz greater than 50 decibels hearing level (dBHL)
Audiological Evaluation
Tests of hearing, cognition, and speech perception
Interventions
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Audiological Evaluation
Tests of hearing, cognition, and speech perception
Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria
* Hearing loss will be limited to 40 dB HL from 250 Hz through 1000 Hz, and to 60 dB HL through 4000 Hz.
* Hearing loss must be greater than 25 dB at two or more frequencies from 250 to 4000 Hz.
Exclusion Criteria
* Participants with conductive hearing losses, defined as air-bone gap greater than 15 dB, will be excluded.
* The audiometric battery with acoustic reflex thresholds and decay measurements will be used to exclude anyone with evidence of a central disorder or a pathology other than a sensorineural loss. Those potential participants will be referred to a medical professional.
50 Years
75 Years
ALL
Yes
Sponsors
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US Department of Veterans Affairs
FED
Responsible Party
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Principal Investigators
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Marjorie R. Leek, PhD
Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
VA Loma Linda Healthcare System, Loma Linda, CA
Countries
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Related Links
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This is the web page of the VA research Center where the study took place
Other Identifiers
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C4338-R
Identifier Type: -
Identifier Source: org_study_id