Research Areas

The following focus areas are part of the research conducted at ORCA Europe, both covered by recent and past studies, respectively. For more information about the research areas and their related studies, use the "Read More" buttons below.

Auditory Ecology

The term “Auditory Ecology” refers to the acoustical environments a person experiences and the auditory demands the person has in these environments. Lately, there has been an increased interest in the auditory ecology concept as an important aspect when developing hearing devices, but also when designing more realistic and ecologically valid laboratory tests.

Test & verification methodology

An essential part of most auditory research is based on sensitive, reliable and valid test methods. Progress in hearing aid technology and outcome measures require constant revision of existing test methods and development of new methods.

Hearing Aid Prescriptions

The initial part of a hearing-aid fitting is typically performed using a prescriptive approach. Calculations, most often based on hearing threshold levels, are used to derive hearing aid settings that are appropriate for a large number of hearing aid users with the same audiogram.

Noise Reduction in Hearing Aids

Hearing aid manufactures have used different approaches when implementing noise reduction (NR) algorithms in their products. There is a demand for test methods which are able to evaluate and quantify the performance and benefit of different NR systems.

Severe-Profound Hearing Losses

A severe or profound hearing loss is characterized by particular problems in speech perception which must be considered in hearing-aid fitting. This has been addressed in a series of studies at ORCA Europe.

Other

Audiological research covers a wide range of research areas also beyond those described on this page. To find out more about conducted ORCA Europe studies that are not part of any of the previously described research areas, use the link below.