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Use of Airpod Pros as Assistive Technology
Who can join
Ages 18 to 60 · All sexes · Healthy volunteers welcome
Full eligibility criteria
Inclusion Criteria: * Adults aged 18 to 60 years. * Fluent English speakers. * Mild-to-moderate hearing loss confirmed by a pure-tone hearing test (average hearing threshold screening 25 to 55 dB HL across octave frequencies from 250 to 8000 Hz). * Individuals with no prior hearing aid experience for a year. Exclusion Criteria: * Normal hearing. * Hearing loss worse than moderate. * Neurological, psychiatric, or ophthalmological conditions that might alter the pupil response. * Non-fluent English speakers. * Individuals with prior hearing aid experience more than a year.
About the study
The goal of this study is to investigate the suitability and effectiveness of the AirPod Pro 2nd and 3rd generation (AP) as hearing assistive technology for individuals with mild-to-moderate hearing loss when listening in noisy environments. Researchers will compare four types of assistive technology: hearing aids (HAs), AP, dedicated wireless remote microphones, and Smartphone wireless remote microphone.
The main questions it aims to answer are:
* Which assistive technology provides the greatest benefit for speech recognition in noisy environments? * How do these devices impact listening effort, as measured by reaction time in a dual-task activity and changes in pupil size? * What are participants' preferences for each device based on how easy it is to understand speech and their overall satisfaction? Participants will visit the lab for a single 3-hour session. They will listen to sentences using each device and repeat what they hear. During this task, their reaction times for the secondary task and changes in pupil size will be measured.
What is being tested
- Airpod Pro as hearing assistive technology (device)
Sponsor: The University of Texas at Dallas · Participants: 24 · Started: Jul 1, 2025
Contact the study team
- Linda Thibodeau, Ph.D. · Phone: 972-883-3108
- Seeon Kim, Ph.D. · Phone: 4806164403
Official record on ClinicalTrials.gov — NCT06840015
Locations in the U.S.
| Texas | Callier Center for Communication Disorders, Richardson |
Conditions
From ClinicalTrials.gov, data retrieved Sep 30, 2026. Each study sets its own eligibility; the study team decides who can join.