The better-ear advantage yields an 8 dB speech-recognition benefit in noise

Evidence

Following this type of procedure, Bronkhorst and Plomp (1988) measured speech-recognition thresholds (SRTs — the dB level at which words are identified 50% of the time) and found an 8 dB benefit from the better-ear advantage. For reference, an 8-dB improvement in SRT can correspond to an increase of 56 percentage points for word identification (e.g., Duquesnoy, 1983). For someone communicating in a noisy environment, this effect alone could be the difference between participating in a conversation or not. — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 1546

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• SHARE: The 8 dB-to-56-percentage-points conversion is a striking quantitative anchor for anyone working in audiology or hearing-aid fitting.

Related

• An 8 dB better-ear advantage can raise word identification by 56 percentage points (similarity 0.94)
• The better-ear advantage alone yields an 8 dB SRT benefit worth 56 percentage points (similarity 0.93)
• A 1 dB SNR improvement boosts intelligibility by 7 to 19 percent (similarity 0.85)
• A 1 dB SNR improvement raises speech intelligibility by 7 to 19 percent. (similarity 0.84)
• Hearing aid SNR improvements fall below the just-noticeable threshold for speech understanding (similarity 0.84)
• Improving the SNR by reducing noise helps speech more than raising the target. (similarity 0.84)
• Improving speech intelligibility via noise reduction outweighs equivalent improvement of the target signal. (similarity 0.84)
• Meaningful speech-in-noise benefit requires double the detectable SNR change (similarity 0.82)
• Removing low-frequency masker energy improves speech intelligibility by 0.65 dB per dB (similarity 0.82)
• Directional hearing-aid microphones improve speech-in-noise SNR by over 7 dB. (similarity 0.82)
• Current hearing aids cannot produce SNR improvements exceeding the meaningful-benefit threshold in real environments. (similarity 0.82)
• Instantaneous interaural level differences improve intelligibility beyond better-ear listening alone (similarity 0.82)
• Very high speech levels can reduce word recognition scores. (similarity 0.81)
• Hearing aids cannot deliver speech-in-noise gains that users can perceive or value (similarity 0.81)
• Pure level changes are rated as valuable as SNR changes despite not aiding intelligibility (similarity 0.81)