Preliminary Investigation of a Novel Measure of Speech Recognition in Noise.

Background/Objectives: Previous research has shown that listeners may use acoustic cues for speech processing that are perceived during brief segments in the noise when there is an optimal signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). This "glimpsing" effect requires higher cognitive skills than the speech tasks used in typical audiometric evaluations.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the use of an online test of speech processing in noise in listeners with typical hearing sensitivity (TH, defined as thresholds ≤ 25 dB HL) who were asked to determine the gender of the subject in sentences that were presented in increasing levels of continuous and interrupted noise. Methods: This was a repeated-measures design with three factors (SNR, noise type, and syntactic complexity).

Study sample: Participants with self-reported TH (N = 153, ages 18-39 years, mean age = 20.7 years) who passed an online hearing screening were invited to complete an online questionnaire.

Data collection and analysis: Participants completed a sentence recognition task under four SNRs (-6, -9, -12, and -15 dB), two syntactic complexity settings (subjective-relative and objective-relative center-embedded), and two noise types (interrupted and continuous). They were asked to listen to 64 sentences through their own headphones/earphones that were presented in an online format at a user-selected comfortable listening level. Their task was to identify the gender of the person performing the action in each sentence. Results: Significant main effects of all three factors as well as the SNR by noise-type two-way interaction were identified (p < 0.05). This interaction indicated that the effect of SNR on sentence comprehension was more pronounced in the continuous noise compared to the interrupted noise condition. Conclusions: Listeners with self-reported TH benefited from the glimpsing effect in the interrupted noise even under low SNRs (i.e., -15 dB). The evaluation of glimpsing may be a sensitive measure of auditory processing beyond the traditional word recognition used in clinical evaluations in persons who report hearing challenges and may hold promise for the development of auditory training programs.