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Two ears hear better than one

Cocktail Party

Your party experience depends a lot upon your hearing in both ears.

According to an American study, you hear considerably better (6-7 dB) when listening with both ears as compared to one, when in a room full of a variety of sounds.

The researchers studied what they call "the cocktail party problem" . This problem typically arises at a party when you are surrounded by voices and noise from all directions and you have trouble hearing what others are saying to you.

The participants in the study had normal hearing in both ears. Their hearing was tested, one ear at a time, and both ears together, while in noisy conditions with voices and sounds simulating a party.

The results showed the significance of hearing with both ears. When the room was full of interfering voices, the participants recorded improvements of 6-7 dB in hearing with two ears over just one. When the interfering sounds were noise or when the interference was one low sound of either speech or noise, the recorded improvements were 2-4 dB when listening with both ears.

Earlier studies of people with hearing loss in both ears showed that they hear significantly better when they wear two hearing aids rather than one. Like the subjects in the new study, they found that they were better able to hear and determine the direction of sounds when listening with two ears.

Source: The benefit of binaural hearing in a cocktail party: Effect of location and type of interferer. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, February, 2004. Article courtesy www.i-hear.org

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