A MULTIDIMENSIONAL EVALUATION OF AUDITORY PERFORMANCE IN ONE POWERED ELECTRONIC LEVEL-DEPENDENT HEARING PROTECTOR

摘要

Sample results from an extensive set of electroacoustic and psychoacoustic experiments are presented for one powered electronic earmuff headset, the PELTOR Powercom Plus from Aearo Technologies (3M). The goal is to illustrate, through this device, typical performance characteristics to be expected from level-dependent hearing protectors and their potential benefits or drawbacks in several aural communication tasks. The data set comprises both speech and warning sound perception results, with the device operating in passive or active level-dependent modes, in quiet or in noise, for a range of listeners with normal hearing or hearing loss. The active mode of the device showed a sizable speech intelligibility benefit for all groups of listeners compared to the passive mode, and demonstrated a level of performance often exceeding that for unprotected listening. The detection of vehicle back-up alarms in quiet was also superior in the active mode than in the passive mode, although no benefit was found in noise. The active mode of the device only marginally helped to restore the sense of urgency conveyed by back-up alarms in noise, which was largely affected by passive attenuation. The localization of back-up alarms was slightly worse when wearing the device than for unprotected listening, and was not improved in the active mode compared to the passive mode. Overall, results highlight the challenges of designing a device to restore situational awareness to that in the absence of hearing protection for all aural communication tasks and listeners.