Time-compressed spondaic words as a measure of speech reception threshold

Lists A and B of the C.I.D. W-1 spondees were time-compressed with a Lexicon Varispeech I unit. SRTs were collected from one ear of each of 60 normal-hearing young adults. No list differences were found. The R ears of 30 Ss were superior to the L ears of 30 Ss by 0.8 db. Mean SRTs collapsed across lists and ears were 9.3-10.7-13.2 db for the compressions in the order 0-40-60%. The differences were judged clinically insignificant, nevertheless when considered with earlier data it may be concluded that time-compressed spondees may come to have use as a clinical device.