Effects of Slow- and Fast-Acting Compression on Hearing-Impaired Listeners' Consonant–Vowel Identification in Interrupted Noise. (October 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kowalewski, Borys; Zaar, Johannes; Fereczkowski, Michal; MacDonald, Ewen N.; Strelcyk, Olaf; May, Tobias; Dau, Torsten
• Is Part Of: Trends in hearing. Volume 22(2018)
• Publication Date: 2018-10
• Subjects: hearing aids -- hearing loss -- amplification -- speech; Hearing aids -- Periodicals; Cochlear implants -- Periodicals; Hearing impaired -- Rehabilitation -- Periodicals; 617.89
• DOI: 10.1177/2331216518800870
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2331-2165

Abstract

There is conflicting evidence about the relative benefit of slow- and fast-acting compression for speech intelligibility. It has been hypothesized that fast-acting compression improves audibility at low signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) but may distort the speech envelope at higher SNRs. The present study investigated the effects of compression with a nearly instantaneous attack time but either fast (10 ms) or slow (500 ms) release times on consonant identification in hearing-impaired listeners. Consonant–vowel speech tokens were presented at a range of presentation levels in two conditions: in the presence of interrupted noise and in quiet (with the compressor "shadow-controlled" by the corresponding mixture of speech and noise). These conditions were chosen to disentangle the effects of consonant audibility and noise-induced forward masking on speech intelligibility. A small but systematic intelligibility benefit of fast-acting compression was found in both the quiet and the noisy conditions for the lower speech levels. No detrimental effects of fast-acting compression were observed when the speech level exceeded the level of the noise. These findings suggest that fast-acting compression provides an audibility benefit in fluctuating interferers when compared with slow-acting compression while not substantially affecting the perception of consonants at higher SNRs.