A Comparison of Speech Discrimination Ability for Simulated and Real Hearing

This study evaluates speech discrimination ability, as determined by a standard test of speech reception in noise, for one type hearing defect commonly found in military personnel, namely, noise-induced high-frequency hearing loss. Enlisted submariners with high-frequency hearing loss (average of 22, 45 and 60 decibels at 3, 4 and 6 kiloHertz, respectively) had poorer scores than a normal-hearing control group by 6.2 percentage points on rather difficult tests containing speech in background noise. The performance of the hearing-loss group, however, for the easier tests exceeded by 12.7 points that of another normalhearing control group in which the hearing loss was simulated by filtering. The hearing-loss subjects may by experience have compensated for their defect to some extent in the easier situations. This was not true for the more difficult situations.