Revisiting the detection of interaural time differences in listeners with hearing loss.

Sensitivity to interaural time differences (ITDs) was measured in two groups of listeners, one with normal hearing and one with sensorineural hearing loss. ITD detection thresholds were measured for pure tones and for speech (a single word), in quiet and in the presence of noise. It was predicted that effects of hearing loss would be reduced for speech as compared to tones due to the redundancy of information across frequency. Thresholds were better overall, and the effects of hearing loss less pronounced, for speech than for tones. There was no evidence that effects of hearing loss were exacerbated in noise.