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Speech recognition by normal-hearing listeners improves as a function of the number of spectral channels when tested with a noiseband vocoder simulating cochlear implant signal processing. Speech recognition by the best cochlear implant users, however, saturates around eight channels and does not improve when more electrodes are activated, presumably due to reduced frequency selectivity caused by channel interactions. Listeners with sensorineural hearing loss may also have reduced frequency selectivity due to cochlear damage and the resulting reduction in the nonlinear cochlear mechanisms. The present study investigates whether such a limitation in spectral information transmission would be observed with hearing-impaired listeners, similar to implant users. To test the hypothesis, hearing-impaired subjects were selected from a population of patients with moderate hearing loss of cochlear origin …