A Nonsense Consonant-Vowel-Consonant Word Test to Assess Auditory Processing

Area of Science:

• Audiology
• Neuroscience
• Speech and Hearing Science

Background:

• Dichotic listening (DL) assesses auditory processing disorders using various stimuli.
• Nonsense words are valuable for evaluating auditory processing without linguistic bias.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the clinical applicability and face validity of a novel nonsense word DL test.
• To assess young adults' performance on this new test.

Main Methods:

• An experimental design was used with 100 young adults (ages 20-30) with normal hearing.
• Participants completed the Dichotic Nonsense Word (DNW) test and the Dichotic Words Test (DWT).
• Statistical analyses compared performance and determined criterion cutoff scores.

Main Results:

• The DNW test yielded significantly different scores compared to the DWT in both ears.
• Participants scored lower on the DNW test than the DWT.
• DNW test ear advantage scores were significantly larger, with wider cutoff ranges.

Conclusions:

• The DNW test demonstrates potential as a clinical tool for auditory processing assessment.
• It can evaluate auditory skills independently of vocabulary knowledge.
• Further use in test batteries is recommended.