Muddy, muddled, or muffled? Understanding the perception of audio quality in music by hearing aid users
IntroductionPrevious work on audio quality evaluation has demonstrated a developing convergence of the key perceptual attributes underlying judgments of quality, such as timbral, spatial and technical attributes. However, across existing research there remains a limited understanding of the crucial...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2024-02-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1310176/full |
| _version_ | 1797300909510754304 |
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| author | Scott Bannister Alinka E. Greasley Trevor J. Cox Michael A. Akeroyd Jon Barker Bruno Fazenda Jennifer Firth Simone N. Graetzer Gerardo Roa Dabike Rebecca R. Vos William M. Whitmer |
| author_facet | Scott Bannister Alinka E. Greasley Trevor J. Cox Michael A. Akeroyd Jon Barker Bruno Fazenda Jennifer Firth Simone N. Graetzer Gerardo Roa Dabike Rebecca R. Vos William M. Whitmer |
| author_sort | Scott Bannister |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | IntroductionPrevious work on audio quality evaluation has demonstrated a developing convergence of the key perceptual attributes underlying judgments of quality, such as timbral, spatial and technical attributes. However, across existing research there remains a limited understanding of the crucial perceptual attributes that inform audio quality evaluation for people with hearing loss, and those who use hearing aids. This is especially the case with music, given the unique problems it presents in contrast to human speech.MethodThis paper presents a sensory evaluation study utilising descriptive analysis methods, in which a panel of hearing aid users collaborated, through consensus, to identify the most important perceptual attributes of music audio quality and developed a series of rating scales for future listening tests. Participants (N = 12), with a hearing loss ranging from mild to severe, first completed an online elicitation task, providing single-word terms to describe the audio quality of original and processed music samples; this was completed twice by each participant, once with hearing aids, and once without. Participants were then guided in discussing these raw terms across three focus groups, in which they reduced the term space, identified important perceptual groupings of terms, and developed perceptual attributes from these groups (including rating scales and definitions for each).ResultsFindings show that there were seven key perceptual dimensions underlying music audio quality (clarity, harshness, distortion, spaciousness, treble strength, middle strength, and bass strength), alongside a music audio quality attribute and possible alternative frequency balance attributes.DiscussionWe outline how these perceptual attributes align with extant literature, how attribute rating instruments might be used in future work, and the importance of better understanding the music listening difficulties of people with varied profiles of hearing loss. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T23:14:48Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2d30fa26d0684789aba317db7b030d6a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T23:14:48Z |
| publishDate | 2024-02-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-2d30fa26d0684789aba317db7b030d6a2024-02-21T13:26:45ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782024-02-011510.3389/fpsyg.2024.13101761310176Muddy, muddled, or muffled? Understanding the perception of audio quality in music by hearing aid usersScott Bannister0Alinka E. Greasley1Trevor J. Cox2Michael A. Akeroyd3Jon Barker4Bruno Fazenda5Jennifer Firth6Simone N. Graetzer7Gerardo Roa Dabike8Rebecca R. Vos9William M. Whitmer10School of Music, University of Leeds, Leeds, United KingdomSchool of Music, University of Leeds, Leeds, United KingdomAcoustics Research Centre, University of Salford, Salford, United KingdomSchool of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United KingdomDepartment of Computer Science, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United KingdomAcoustics Research Centre, University of Salford, Salford, United KingdomSchool of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United KingdomAcoustics Research Centre, University of Salford, Salford, United KingdomAcoustics Research Centre, University of Salford, Salford, United KingdomAcoustics Research Centre, University of Salford, Salford, United KingdomSchool of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United KingdomIntroductionPrevious work on audio quality evaluation has demonstrated a developing convergence of the key perceptual attributes underlying judgments of quality, such as timbral, spatial and technical attributes. However, across existing research there remains a limited understanding of the crucial perceptual attributes that inform audio quality evaluation for people with hearing loss, and those who use hearing aids. This is especially the case with music, given the unique problems it presents in contrast to human speech.MethodThis paper presents a sensory evaluation study utilising descriptive analysis methods, in which a panel of hearing aid users collaborated, through consensus, to identify the most important perceptual attributes of music audio quality and developed a series of rating scales for future listening tests. Participants (N = 12), with a hearing loss ranging from mild to severe, first completed an online elicitation task, providing single-word terms to describe the audio quality of original and processed music samples; this was completed twice by each participant, once with hearing aids, and once without. Participants were then guided in discussing these raw terms across three focus groups, in which they reduced the term space, identified important perceptual groupings of terms, and developed perceptual attributes from these groups (including rating scales and definitions for each).ResultsFindings show that there were seven key perceptual dimensions underlying music audio quality (clarity, harshness, distortion, spaciousness, treble strength, middle strength, and bass strength), alongside a music audio quality attribute and possible alternative frequency balance attributes.DiscussionWe outline how these perceptual attributes align with extant literature, how attribute rating instruments might be used in future work, and the importance of better understanding the music listening difficulties of people with varied profiles of hearing loss.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1310176/fullmusichearing lossaudio quality evaluationperceptionhearing aids |
| spellingShingle | Scott Bannister Alinka E. Greasley Trevor J. Cox Michael A. Akeroyd Jon Barker Bruno Fazenda Jennifer Firth Simone N. Graetzer Gerardo Roa Dabike Rebecca R. Vos William M. Whitmer Muddy, muddled, or muffled? Understanding the perception of audio quality in music by hearing aid users Frontiers in Psychology music hearing loss audio quality evaluation perception hearing aids |
| title | Muddy, muddled, or muffled? Understanding the perception of audio quality in music by hearing aid users |
| title_full | Muddy, muddled, or muffled? Understanding the perception of audio quality in music by hearing aid users |
| title_fullStr | Muddy, muddled, or muffled? Understanding the perception of audio quality in music by hearing aid users |
| title_full_unstemmed | Muddy, muddled, or muffled? Understanding the perception of audio quality in music by hearing aid users |
| title_short | Muddy, muddled, or muffled? Understanding the perception of audio quality in music by hearing aid users |
| title_sort | muddy muddled or muffled understanding the perception of audio quality in music by hearing aid users |
| topic | music hearing loss audio quality evaluation perception hearing aids |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1310176/full |
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