Evaluation of a method for enhancing interaural level differences at low frequencies

Moore, Brian C. J., Kolarik, Andrew ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5121-7512 and Stone, Michael A. (2016) Evaluation of a method for enhancing interaural level differences at low frequencies. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 140 (4). ISSN 0001-4966

Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)

Abstract

A method (called binaural enhancement) for enhancing interaural level differences at low frequencies, based on estimates of interaural time differences, was developed and evaluated. Five conditions were compared, all using simulated hearing-aid processing: (1) Linear amplification with frequency-response shaping; (2) binaural enhancement combined with linear amplification and frequency-response shaping; (3) slow-acting four-channel amplitude compression with independent compression at the two ears (AGC4CH); (4) binaural enhancement combined with four-channel compression (BE-AGC4CH); and (5) four-channel compression but with the compression gains synchronized across ears. Ten hearing-impaired listeners were tested, and gains and compression ratios for each listener were set to match targets prescribed by the CAM2 fitting method. Stimuli were presented via headphones, using virtualization methods to simulate listening in a moderately reverberant room. The intelligibility of speech at ±60° azimuth in the presence of competing speech on the opposite side of the head at ±60° azimuth was not affected by the binaural enhancement processing. Sound localization was significantly better for condition BE-AGC4CH than for condition AGC4CH for a sentence, but not for broadband noise, lowpass noise, or lowpass amplitude-modulated noise. The results suggest that the binaural enhancement processing can improve localization for sounds with distinct envelope fluctuations.

Item Type: Article
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Related URLs:
Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 10 Sep 2021 00:23
Last Modified: 23 Oct 2022 02:59
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/81370
DOI: 10.1121/1.4965299

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item