Electronically Simulated Hearing Loss and the Perception of Degraded Speech

Since the early days of investigators such as Licklider1 in the 1940s there has been a continuing interest in the perception of degraded speech. This topic has attracted researchers concerned with the basic psychology of speech perception (see, e.g., Refs. 2 and 3) as well as those wishing to solve the practical problems of intelligibility in telecommunications and public address systems4-7 and in digitally coded speech.8,9 The study of speech perception by the hearing-impaired listener, who will typically use a hearing aid, relates to investigations across a wide range of the research areas outlined above.