Journal of Audiology & Otology  2016;20(2):80-84

doi:10.7874/jao.2016.20.2.80

The Band-Importance Function for the Korean Standard Sentence Lists for Adults.

In Ki JIN 1 ; Junghak LEE ; Kyoungwon LEE ; Jinsook KIM ; Dongwook KIM ; Junil SOHN ; Kyung Ju LEE

Affiliations

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Keywords

Band-importance function; Speech intelligibility; Hearing aid fitting

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

English

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The band-importance function (BIF) refers to a value characterizing the relative importance of different frequencies to speech intelligibility. The purpose of this study was to derive the BIF for the Korean standard sentence lists for adults (KS-SL-A). SUBJECTS AND METHODS: In this study, sentences from the KS-SL-A were used as the speech material. Twenty-six normal-hearing Korean listeners participated and intelligibility scores in 8 filters with 3 signal-to-noise ratio conditions were obtained. Based on the intelligibility score percentages, the BIF for the KS-SL-A was derived by using an established protocol. RESULTS: Band-importance weights varied across frequency bands. The most important frequency region was around 316 Hz (20.0%), and the importance of the frequency bands below the center frequency (CF) of 1,778 Hz was 59.6%. Therefore, low frequencies below the CF of 1,778 Hz were more important than high frequencies above the CF of 1,778 Hz. CONCLUSIONS: The BIF for KS-SL-A could be applied towards developing a hearing aid fitting formulae for Korean listeners.