Reference:

Atcherson SR, Mendel LL, Baltimore WJ, et al. The Effect of Conventional and Transparent Surgical Masks on Speech Understanding in Individuals with and without Hearing Loss. J Am Acad Audiol. 2017;28(1):58-67. doi:10.3766/jaaa.15151

Experimental Design:

Experimenters tested 30 participants to see if they could understand speech better if a speaker used a transparent mask when talking. A speaker repeated a set series of phrases to participants. In different trials, the speaker wore surgical masks, masks with clear plastic windows, or no masks at all and then participants repeated what they thought the speaker said. To further test the importance of visual cues, the researchers repeated the same procedure while making sure the participants couldn't see the masked speaker at all (with the exception of the surgical mask, which was only recorded without visual cues). They predicted that being able to see someone’s mouth as they spoke would make it easier to understand speech.

Results:

For participants with normal hearing:

• Using a transparent or surgical mask, with or without visual cues, had little impact on comprehension for people with normal hearing.

For participants with moderate hearing loss:

• They were able to hear much better (90% comprehension) when they listened to and saw someone with a transparent mask. Their comprehension was the same as when they listened to and saw someone with no mask at all!
  
• When they only listened to someone with a transparent mask, they had 75% comprehension
  
• When they listened to someone with a surgical mask, they had 73% comprehension.

For participants with severe hearing loss:

• Being able to see people’s mouths with transparent masks doubled comprehension, with 52% comprehension when listening to and seeing someone with a transparent mask vs 24% comprehension when only listening to someone with a surgical mask.
  
  • This is close to their comprehension when they listened to and saw someone with no mask at all (57% comprehension), which shows the importance of visual cues!

What does this mean?

It can sometimes be difficult to speak to and hear others with masks! Fortunately, transparent masks allow you to see people’s mouths without blocking additional sound, and have been proven to significantly help with communication. There are other resources available as well, like hearing apps, or mics!

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