ABSTRACT
Introduction: Previous work on audio quality evaluation has demonstrated a developing convergence of the key perceptual attributes underlying judgments of quality, such as timbral, spatial and technical attributes. However, across existing research there remains a limited understanding of the crucial perceptual attributes that inform audio quality evaluation for people with hearing loss, and those who use hearing aids. This is especially the case with music, given the unique problems it presents in contrast to human speech. Method: This paper presents a sensory evaluation study utilising descriptive analysis methods, in which a panel of hearing aid users collaborated, through consensus, to identify the most important perceptual attributes of music audio quality and developed a series of rating scales for future listening tests. Participants (N = 12), with a hearing loss ranging from mild to severe, first completed an online elicitation task, providing single-word terms to describe the audio quality of original and processed music samples; this was completed twice by each participant, once with hearing aids, and once without. Participants were then guided in discussing these raw terms across three focus groups, in which they reduced the term space, identified important perceptual groupings of terms, and developed perceptual attributes from these groups (including rating scales and definitions for each). Results: Findings show that there were seven key perceptual dimensions underlying music audio quality (clarity, harshness, distortion, spaciousness, treble strength, middle strength, and bass strength), alongside a music audio quality attribute and possible alternative frequency balance attributes. Discussion: We outline how these perceptual attributes align with extant literature, how attribute rating instruments might be used in future work, and the importance of better understanding the music listening difficulties of people with varied profiles of hearing loss.
ABSTRACT
Auditory scene analysis (ASA) is the process through which the auditory system makes sense of complex acoustic environments by organising sound mixtures into meaningful events and streams. Although music psychology has acknowledged the fundamental role of ASA in shaping music perception, no efficient test to quantify listeners' ASA abilities in realistic musical scenarios has yet been published. This study presents a new tool for testing ASA abilities in the context of music, suitable for both normal-hearing (NH) and hearing-impaired (HI) individuals: the adaptive Musical Scene Analysis (MSA) test. The test uses a simple 'yes-no' task paradigm to determine whether the sound from a single target instrument is heard in a mixture of popular music. During the online calibration phase, 525 NH and 131 HI listeners were recruited. The level ratio between the target instrument and the mixture, choice of target instrument, and number of instruments in the mixture were found to be important factors affecting item difficulty, whereas the influence of the stereo width (induced by inter-aural level differences) only had a minor effect. Based on a Bayesian logistic mixed-effects model, an adaptive version of the MSA test was developed. In a subsequent validation experiment with 74 listeners (20 HI), MSA scores showed acceptable test-retest reliability and moderate correlations with other music-related tests, pure-tone-average audiograms, age, musical sophistication, and working memory capacities. The MSA test is a user-friendly and efficient open-source tool for evaluating musical ASA abilities and is suitable for profiling the effects of hearing impairment on music perception.
ABSTRACT
Objective: Two studies explored hearing-aid user and audiologist experiences of hearing-aid use and fitting for music in the UK.Design and sample: One-hundred-seventy-six hearing-aid users (age range: 21-93 years; mean: 60.56 years) answered a 4-item questionnaire on music listening difficulties and discussions about music in clinic. 99 audiologists (age range: 22-71 years; mean: 39.18 years) answered a 36-item questionnaire on the frequency and type of discussions, training received, and strategies for optimizing hearing aids for music. Closed and open-ended questions were included.Results: Sixty seven percent of hearing-aid users reported some degree of difficulty listening to music with hearing aids, and 58% had never discussed music in clinic. 50% of audiologists surveyed asked 1 in 5 (or fewer) patients about music and 67% had never received music-specific training. Audiologist training on music was significantly associated with confidence in providing advice, confidence in programming hearing aids for music, and programming hearing aids for music for a greater number of patients.Conclusions: Hearing-aid users' and audiologists' experiences of music remain mixed. In the absence of formalised training in optimizing hearing aids for music, there is a need for systematic research relating fitting strategies to clinical outcomes and the development of guidelines for audiologist training.
