Comparison of the hearing threshold measured by pure-tone audiometry and by Békésy sweep audiometry

The hearing thresholds of 115 subjects, workers in a shipyard, were determined both by Békésy sweep audiometry and by conventional individual pure-tone audiometry at fixed audiometric frequencies. The Békésy method gave the lowest values for the hearing thresholds. It has been possible to find a useful linear relation between pure-tone and Békésy hearing thresholds. With the help of a retest experiment it has been established that the standard deviations of hearing thresholds, obtained under similar conditions in a pure-tone investigation, are about twice as large as those obtained in a Békésy investigation.