Horizontal Sound Localization Skills of Unilaterally Hearing-Impaired Children

The present study assessed the horizontal sound localization skills of three groups of subjects; normal-hearing adults, normal-hearing children, and unilaterally hearing-impaired children. The ability of these subjects to localize pure tones to 500 and 3000 Hz in quiet and in a background of cafeteria noise was evaluated using an array of thirteen loudspeakers mounted in a large anechoic chamber. Results indicated a significant effect of signal frequency in all three groups of listeners. In addition, the hearing-impaired children performed significantly poorer than their normal-hearing counterparts in all conditions. Individual differences in sound localization ability among the hearing-impaired listeners could be explained largely through effects of age and degree of hearing impairment.