Binaural summation largely survives sensorineural hearing loss when sounds stay audible

Evidence

Generally speaking, binaural summation is not greatly altered by sensorineural hearing loss. Hall and Harvey (1985) and Hawkins, Prosek, Walden, and Montgomery (1987) found that loudness summation was not altered by sensorineural hearing loss, as long as the sounds presented to both ears were audible. However, Whilby, Florentine, Wagner, and Marozeau (2006) argued that binaural summation abilities vary greatly across listeners. They suggested that listeners fell into two distinct groups: those who experienced much less binaural summation than listeners with normal hearing and those who experienced much more binaural summation. While some listeners appear to have fairly normal binaural summation, the majority of listeners experience deficits in a number of arenas. — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 1577

Categorization

• QUESTION: The Whilby finding of two distinct summation groups (less or more than normal) is striking but unexplained here — worth chasing the original study.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 1577