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Unreliability of half-list discrimination tests.
Journal of the American Audiology Society
|September 1, 1975
Summary
The reliability of half-list auditory discrimination tests (CID W-22 and NU-6) is questionable for both hearing and hearing-impaired individuals. The NU-6 half-list proved less reliable than the CID W-22 half-list.
Area of Science:
- Audiology
- Speech-Language Pathology
- Hearing Science
Background:
- Auditory discrimination tests are crucial for assessing speech perception.
- Shortened test forms are often used for efficiency, but their reliability needs validation.
- The California Consonant Discrimination (CID W-22) and Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6 (NU-6) are common auditory tests.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the reliability of half-list versions of the CID W-22 and NU-6 auditory discrimination tests.
- To compare the reliability of these half-list forms in normally hearing and sensorineurally hearing-impaired subjects.
Main Methods:
- Administered full and half-list forms of CID W-22 and NU-6 to two groups: normally hearing and sensorineural hearing-impaired.
- Scored both half-list and whole-list versions for each subject group.
- Analyzed data to determine the reliability of the half-list forms.
Main Results:
- Half-list forms of both CID W-22 and NU-6 demonstrated lower reliability than commonly assumed.
- The half-list NU-6 was found to be less reliable than the half-list CID W-22, even prior to applying correction coefficients.
- Reliability concerns were present in both normally hearing and sensorineurally impaired populations.
Conclusions:
- The use of half-list forms for CID W-22 and NU-6 may compromise test reliability.
- Clinicians should exercise caution when interpreting results from shortened auditory discrimination tests.
- Further research may be needed to establish reliable shortened versions of these auditory tests.