The impact of time delays in hearing aids on the benefit of speechreading.

Abstract: ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study was to examine the impact of delays on the benefit of speechreading. This was evaluated with a speech perception test, a modified version of the Just Follow Conversation test (JFC) in this study called JFC live. The speech material was presented live by a woman who read out loud pieces of text. The speech material was presented in competing noise. Twenty-three test subjects participated in the test, twelve men and eleven women. Different delays (0-200 ms) were presented to the test subject during the test. Furthermore, one cognitive function, working memory, was tested with the Reading Span test after the JFC live. The result showed that hearing impaired people benefited from visual cues. The majority of the test subjects suffered from the tested delays (0- 200 ms) but in general not by shorter delays <40 ms which this study aimed to investigate.