Normal-Hearing Listener

A research term for a participant whose audiometric thresholds fall within the clinical normal range (typically pure-tone thresholds of 25 dB HL or better across speech frequencies), used as a comparison group in hearing-accessibility studies. Normal-hearing (NH) listeners are commonly contrasted with cochlear implant users, hearing-aid users, or participants with measured hearing loss to isolate the perceptual consequences of reduced auditory resolution. The term is a methodological convenience rather than a claim that any single threshold defines 'normal' hearing; practitioners should note its ties to medical-model framings of hearing.