Subjective and objective evaluation of noise management algorithms.

PURPOSE To measure the subjective and objective improvement of speech intelligibility in noise offered by a commercial hearing aid that uses a fully adaptive directional microphone and a noise reduction algorithm that optimizes the Speech Intelligibility Index (SII). RESEARCH DESIGN Comparison of results on the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) and the Acceptable Noise Level task (ANL). STUDY SAMPLE Eighteen participants with varying configurations of sensorineural hearing loss. RESULTS Both the directional microphone and the noise reduction algorithm improved the speech-in-noise performance of the participants. The benefits reported were higher for the directional microphone than the noise reduction algorithm. A moderate correlation was noted between the benefits measured on the HINT and the ANL for the directional microphone condition, the noise reduction condition, and the directional microphone plus noise reduction conditions. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that the directional microphone and the SII-based noise reduction algorithm may improve the SNR of the listening environments, and both the HINT and the ANL may be used to study their benefits.