Dr. Michael Schulte, Oldenburg
Video 1 
2018
“ACALES: A tool to reliably measure subjective listening effort and evaluate algorithms for noise reduction”
Listening effort is an important parameter to evaluate hearing aids and hearing aid algorithms. Above all, subjective listening effort seems to be a promising approach for a suitable method. Using Adaptive Categorical Listening Effort Scaling (ACALES), subjective listening effort can be determined in a simple manner.
A prerequisite for reliable data acquisition of subjective listening effort is an instruction that describes the construct of listening effort in a comprehensible manner. To ensure this, we conducted a study with 20 test subjects to evaluate and improve the instruction. Subjects were asked to verbally describe different stressful situations. The answers and descriptions resulted in a subjective definition that combines listening effort with the concept of concentration. This new finding was used to improve the instruction of the ACALES method.
In the presentation, we shall present new results regarding the test-retest reliability of ACALES. We also evaluated different noise reduction algorithms concerning their effect on listening effort. The results showed that directional as well as non-directional algorithms for noise reduction can significantly reduce listening effort in a commercially available hearing aid.