How Individuals Shape Their Acoustic Environment: Implications for Hearing Aid Comparison in Ecological Momentary Assessment

When using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to compare different hearing aid programs, it is usually assumed that for sufficiently long study durations similar situations will be experienced in both programs. However, conscious or subconscious adaptation of situations to one's hearing ability (e.g., asking a conversation partner to speak up, increasing TV volume)-which might be different across the time spent in different hearing aid programs-may challenge this assumption. In the present study, we investigated how test participants modify their acoustic environment and if these modifications depend on the hearing program.