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Why hearing impairment may degrade selective attention

In everyday settings, the ability to selectively attend is critical for communication. Most normal-hearing listeners are able to selectively attend to a talker of interest in a sea of competing sources, and to rapidly shift attention as the need arises. However, hearing-impaired (HI) listeners and cochlear implant users have dif culty communicating when there are multiple sources. This paper reviews some of the processes governing selective attention in normal listeners. Results suggest that selective attention operates to select out perceptual "objects," and thus depends directly on the ability to separate a source of interest from a mixture of competing sources. In turn, this view suggests that one factor affecting how well HI listeners can communicate in everyday settings is their ability to perceptually organize the auditory scene.