Reliability of threshold, slope, and PB max for monosyllabic words.

Area of Science:

• Audiology
• Speech Perception
• Hearing Science

Background:

• Speech intelligibility testing is crucial for assessing hearing aid effectiveness.
• Reliability of speech intelligibility measures is essential for clinical and research applications.
• The CID W-22 monosyllable word lists are commonly used but require validation for test-retest reliability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the test-retest reliability of speech intelligibility functions derived from CID W-22 monosyllables.
• To assess the reliability of threshold, slope, and maximum intelligibility (PB max) measures.
• To compare reliability between normally hearing listeners and those with mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss.

Main Methods:

• Utilized Auditec recordings of CID W-22 monosyllables.
• Generated speech intelligibility functions for normally hearing and hearing-impaired groups.
• Administered tests with varying word list lengths (50 for normal, 25 for impaired) and sound pressure levels (SPLs).
• Analyzed reliability of threshold (50% point), slope (20%-80% points), and PB max.

Main Results:

• Monosyllabic thresholds demonstrated high stability (95% within 6 dB) for both groups.
• Group slopes were 4.9%/dB (normal) and 2.7%/dB (impaired).
• Fair reliability was observed for slope measures (+/- 1.9%/dB for normal, +/- 1.1%/dB for impaired).
• Maximum intelligibility (PB max) scores were highly stable when averaged across multiple lists.

Conclusions:

• CID W-22 monosyllable testing exhibits reliable threshold and PB max scores.
• Slope reliability is fair, suggesting caution when interpreting individual slope measures.
• Findings support the use of CID W-22 for reliable speech intelligibility assessment in audiology.