International journal of audiology
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Backward-facing directional processing (Back-DIR) is an algorithm that employs an anti-cardioid directivity pattern to enhance speech arriving from behind the listener. An experiment that was originally designed to evaluate Back-DIR, together with its follow-up experiment, are reported to illustrate how hearing-aid users' voices could affect directional benefit. ⋯ In the original experiment, hearing aids were affected by listeners' voices such that Back-DIR was not always activated when the target speech was presented. In the follow-up experiment, listeners' voice effects were eliminated by the carrier phrase activating Back-DIR before the sentences were presented. The results suggest that the effect of hearing-aid technologies is highly dependent on the characteristics of listening conditions.