Introduction
We are conducting new research as part of the Cadenza Project (https://cadenzachallenge.org/), which seeks to develop measures of audio quality for music for people with hearing loss. The broader aim of using these measures is to develop novel signal processing strategies that can be used in hearing aids and consumer devices to improve experiences of music.
We are planning an online listening experiment that will take place in the coming months, in which participants will be asked to listen to many excerpts of music, and rate these in terms of their audio quality, using several attributes developed by hearing aid users.
We are now looking to recruit potential research participants to this online listening experiment. Participation would involve being invited to have a hearing test, or providing a recent audiogram, and listening in your homes to music excerpts for up to 5 hours in total; this duration of listening will be separated into smaller manageable blocks of time. You would be compensated for this time, and for travel costs for any hearing tests.
Eligibility
To be eligible to take part, prospective participants should be:
- Bilateral hearing aid users
- Have a hearing loss in the range of mild to moderately severe in their better ear
- Please note: At this point in the process, we have recruited a number of participants to this study, many with a moderately-severe/borderline severe hearing loss. Ideally, to have a balance and representation of hearing loss levels across the mild to moderately-severe range for this study, we are now looking to recruit more participants with a mild or moderate hearing loss.
- Between the ages of 18 and 90
- Have access to a computer at home, with internet connection
- Either:
- Able to attend a university site in the UK (Leeds, or Nottingham) for a hearing test, OR
- Able to provide a recent audiogram (within the last 6 months)
Unfortunately, at this current stage and design of the research, there are some exclusion criteria that would prevent participation, including:
- Cochlear implant use, or use of other hearing interventions besides acoustic hearing aids
- Diagnosis of Meniere’s disease, or hyperacusis
- Use of a programmable ventriculo-peritoneal (PVP) shunt
- Severe tinnitus that is affected by music, or that interferes with your listening to music
If you are interested in potentially taking part, please feel free to complete a short Eligibility Questionnaire, found using the following link: https://universityleeds.fra1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_aW3GNlCCZ4XoCFg
You will be asked at the end of this questionnaire to provide your contact details to us if desired, so we can be in touch with further details about the online listener experiment.
Questions
If you have any questions at all at this point, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us at musicandhearingaids@leeds.ac.uk (Prof. Alinka Greasley & Dr Scott Bannister on behalf of the Cadenza team).
Ethical clearance
This research has received ethical clearance from the University of Leeds Ethics Committee (Approval Reference: FAHC 21-125), and is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (Grant Reference: EP/W019434/1).