Normally Hearing Subjects Have No Advantage οf Better Audiograms in Listening Tasks

Some correlation has been found in literature between the amount of mild hearing impairment and lowering of performance in listening tasks. The relationship between measures of hearing acuity and performance in listening tasks in the population of normally hearing subjects has not found a solid evidence. In this work six one-parameter measures of hearing acuity based on audiograms, including three originally proposed by the authors, were used to investigate whether a relationship between those measures and listeners' performance existed. The results of six listening tests were investigated, three with speech, two with musical excerpts and one with everyday sounds. The results showed no correlation between hearing acuity and performance, with the exception of everyday sounds, where some correlation was found. No significant differences between the measures used were found.