A psychoacoustic study was performed to determine speech discrimination performance in several noise conditions with the use or non-use of industrial hearing protection. The independent variables included: (1) subject hearing configuration (unoccluded and earplug-, earcap-, or earmuff-occluded), noise intensity level (60, 83 dBA), and noise spectral type (low frequency, white, high frequency). Subjects' hearing level was used as a blocking variable. All factors were found to significantly influence speech discrimination performance, as measured using phoneme scoring. These are discussed in some detail in the paper.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AbelS. M.AlbertiP. W.RikoK. (1980). Speech intelligibility in noise with ear protectors. Journal of Otolaryngology, 9(3), 256–265.
2.
AbelS. M.AlbertiP. W.HaythornthwaiteC.RikoK. (1982). Speech intelligibility in noise. Effects of fluency and hearing protector type. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 71(3), 708–715.
3.
BergerE. H. (1986). Hearing protection devices. In BergerE.H.WardW. D.MorrillJ. C.RoysterL. H. (Eds.), Noise and hearing conservation manual (pp. 319–365). Akron, OH: American Industrial Hygiene Association.
4.
BoothroydA. (1968). Development in speech audiometry. Sound, 2, 3–10.
5.
CasaliJ. G.HorylevM. H.GrenellJ. F. (1987). A pilot study on the effects of hearing protection and ambient noise characteristics on the intensity of uttered speech. In AsfourS. S. (Ed.), Trends in Ergonomics/Human Factors IV (pp. 303–310). Amsterdam: North-Holland.
6.
ColesR. R. A.RiceC. G. (1965). Earplugs and impaired hearing. Journal of Sound and Vibration, 3, 521–523.
7.
FrohlichG. (1969). The effects of ear defenders on speech perception in military transport aircraft. NATO AGARD Advisory Report 19.
8.
HormannH.Lazarus-MainkaG.SchubeiusM.LazarusH. (1984). The effects of noise and the wearing of ear protectors on verbal communication. Noise Control Engineering Journal, 23(2), 69–77.
9.
HowellK.MartinA. M. (1975). An investigation of the effects of hearing protectors on vocal communication in noise. Journal of Sound and Vibration, 41, 181–196.
10.
KryterK. D. (1946). Effects of ear protective devices on the intelligibility of speech in noise. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 18, 413–417.
11.
LawrenceM.YantisP.A. (1956). Onset and growth of aural harmonics in the overloaded ear. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 73(1), 297–311.
12.
LindemanH. E. (1976). Speech intelligibility and the use of hearing protectors. Audiology, 15, 348–356.
13.
PollackI. (1957). Speech communications at high noise levels: The roles of a noise-operated automatic gain control system and hearing protection. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 29, 1324–1327.
14.
RinkT. L. (1979). Hearing protection and speech discrimination in hearing-impaired persons. Sound and Vibration, 22–25.
