In the present study, speech intelligibility was evaluated in realistic, controlled conditions. “Critical sound scenarios” were defined as acoustic scenes that hearing aid users considered important, difficult, and common through ecological momentary assessment. These sound scenarios were acquired in the real world using a spherical microphone array and reproduced inside a loudspeaker-based virtual sound environment (VSE) using Ambisonics. Speech reception thresholds (SRT) were measured for normal-hearing (NH) and hearing-impaired (HI) listeners, using sentences from the Danish hearing in noise test, spatially embedded in the acoustic background of an office meeting sound scenario. In addition, speech recognition scores (SRS) were obtained at a fixed signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of −2.5 dB, corresponding to the median conversational SNR in the office meeting. SRTs measured in the realistic VSE-reproduced background were significantly higher for NH and HI listeners than those obtained with artificial noise presented over headphones, presumably due to an increased amount of modulation masking and a larger cognitive effort required to separate the target speech from the intelligible interferers in the realistic background. SRSs obtained at the fixed SNR in the realistic background could be used to relate the listeners' SI to the potential challenges they experience in the real world.

中文翻译：

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在逼真的虚拟声音环境中的语音清晰度

在本研究中，语音清晰度在现实的，受控的条件下进行了评估。“关键声音场景”被定义为助听器用户通过生态瞬时评估认为重要，困难和普遍的声音场景。这些声音场景是使用球形麦克风阵列在现实世界中获得的，并使用Ambisonics在基于扬声器的虚拟声音环境（VSE）中进行再现。使用来自丹麦听力测试中的句子，针对正常听觉（NH）和听障人士（HI）的听众，测量语音接收阈值（SRT），该语句空间嵌入办公室会议声音场景的声学背景中。此外，在-2.5 dB的固定信噪比（SNR）下获得了语音识别分数（SRS），对应于办公室会议中的会话SNR的中位数。对于NH和HI收听者，在真实的VSE再现背景下测得的SRT明显高于通过头戴式耳机呈现的人工噪声所获得的SRT，这可能是由于调制掩蔽的数量增加以及将目标语音与可理解的声音分开所需要的更大的认知努力现实背景中的干扰因素。在现实背景下以固定SNR获得的SRS可以用于将收听者的SI与他们在现实世界中可能遇到的挑战联系起来。大概是由于调制掩蔽的数量增加以及在现实背景下将目标语音与可理解的干扰因素分开所需要的更大的认知努力。在现实背景下以固定SNR获得的SRS可以用于将收听者的SI与他们在现实世界中可能遇到的挑战联系起来。大概是由于调制掩蔽的数量增加以及在现实背景下将目标语音与可理解的干扰因素分开所需要的更大的认知努力。在现实背景下以固定SNR获得的SRS可以用于将收听者的SI与他们在现实世界中可能遇到的挑战联系起来。