Spatial release from masking in reverberant environments for children with normal hearing and those with bilateral cochlear implants

The current ANSI S12.60 classroom acoustics standard on reverberation was established primarily for good speech perception for school-age children. In classrooms with a lot of ongoing noise, such as background babble, children can benefit from spatial hearing, specifically the ability to gain better intelligibility when the target and the babble talkers are spatially separated. However, while distorting important speech cues, reverberation also distorts important binaural cues, limiting access to spatial hearing for children. In this work, we will examine the impact of simulated reverberation on spatial release from masking (SRM) using auditory virtual reality. SRM is a psychoacoustic measure of the ability to gain speech intelligibility benefits from spatial separation between the target and babble talkers. We will compare SRM under reverberation between school-age children with normal hearing and a group of bilateral cochlear implant users who were implanted during childhood. Findings will provide insights into how the current classroom acoustics standard can support children's spatial hearing. Work supported by NIH R21DC020532.