Influence of the educational status on the Dichotic Sentence Identification test in Brazilian Portuguese

To compare the performance of the Dichotic Sentence Identification (DSI) test in the Brazilian Portuguese version, considering: the right and left ears and the educational status in normal-hearing individuals.

This investigation assessed 200 individuals who are normal listeners and right-handed and were divided into seven groups according to the years of schooling. All the participants underwent basic audiologic evaluation and behavioral auditory processing assessment (sound localization test, memory test for verbal and nonverbal sounds in sequence, dichotic digits test, and DSI).

The evaluated individuals revealed an average educational status of 13.1 years and results within normal limits in the selected tests for the audiologic and auditory processing assessments. Regarding the DSI test, the educational status showed a dependent relationship with the percentages of correct answers in each stage of the test and the evaluated ear. There was a statistically significant positive correlation between the educational status and the percentage of correct answers for all the stages of the DSI test in both the ears. There was also an effect of the educational level on the results obtained in each condition of the DSI test, with the exception of directed attention to the right ear.

Comparing the performance considering the variables studied in the DSI test, we concluded that there is an advantage of the right ear and that, the better the educational level, the better the performance of the individuals.