Presentation level determination for CV tokens using a computer-controlled adaptive procedure

Area of Science:

• Audiology
• Speech Science
• Psychoacoustics

Background:

• Determining speech perception performance-intensity functions is crucial for audiological assessment.
• Traditional methods can be time-consuming and require numerous stimuli.
• Computer-controlled adaptive procedures offer potential for increased efficiency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the feasibility of a computer-controlled adaptive procedure for assessing maximum monotic performance with consonant-vowel (CV) stimuli.
• To compare this adaptive procedure against the typical manual method for determining performance-intensity functions.
• To assess the efficiency and reliability of the computer-controlled adaptive procedure in normally hearing and sensorineural hearing-impaired listeners.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments were conducted comparing a computer-controlled adaptive procedure with a manual procedure.
• Experiment I involved 26 normally hearing listeners.
• Experiment II involved 9 sensorineural hearing-impaired subjects.

Main Results:

• Both procedures yielded similar performance-intensity function shapes.
• The computer-controlled adaptive procedure selected a slightly higher presentation level.
• Test-retest reliability for the adaptive procedure was good (mean difference of 1.2 dB).

Conclusions:

• The computer-controlled adaptive procedure is a feasible and reliable method for determining speech perception performance.
• This adaptive approach offers significant efficiency gains in terms of administration time and stimuli used.
• The procedure is effective for both normally hearing and sensorineural hearing-impaired populations.