A minimum 6 dB SNR change is needed to motivate people to seek intervention

Evidence

The results across different rating and willingness-to-change tasks showed that the mean ratings increased near linearly with a change in SNR, but a change of at least 6 dB was necessary to reliably motivate participants to seek intervention. The magnitude of the JNDs and JMDs for speech-intelligibility benefits measured here suggest a gap between what is achievable and what is meaningful. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 5667

Categorization

• QUESTION: The gap between ~3 dB JND and ~6 dB JMD is striking — worth chasing what mechanisms explain why meaningful benefit needs double the just-noticeable change.
• SEED: Potential essay: the difference between what hearing devices can technically deliver and what actually changes a user’s quality of life — a lesson for any assistive or enhancement technology.
• SHARE: Send to an audiologist or hearing-science colleague — the 3 dB detectable vs 6 dB meaningful distinction is exactly the kind of surprising benchmark they’d care about.