Psychometric Evaluation of a Digitally Recorded Urdu Monosyllabic Word List for Word Recognition Score Testing

Monosyllable words are the most common speech recognition stimuli since they test auditory perception and are used to assess speech recognition. However, there is a lack of resources available for the Urdu-speaking Pakistani population. This study aims to develop and psychometrically evaluate a digitally recorded Urdu monosyllabic word list for Word Recognition Score (WRS) testing.

A total of 135 monosyllabic words were selected from a previous study. These words were digitally recorded by a native female Urdu speaker in a studio. The recordings were psychometrically assessed by 30 native Urdu speakers with normal hearing. The 100 most familiar words were selected and organized into two lists, each further divided into four halves to ensure that the words were relatively homogeneous in terms of audibility.

The average psychometric slope between 20% and 80% for the full list was 4.78%/dB±0.22%/dB, while it was 4.81%/dB±0.35%/dB for the half list. No statistically significant difference in p-values was observed between the full and half lists. The mean psychometric slope for 50% intelligibility was 6.04%/dB for both the full list (SD=0.44) and the half lists (SD=0.40).

Digitally recorded Urdu monosyllabic word lists are valid for assessing speech recognition in native Urdu speakers with normal hearing.