Response time and percentage correct as measures of hearing aid performance

A paradigm yielding response time and percentage correct data was implemented to assess the relative efficacy in differentiating subjects' performance between two disparate hearing aids. These aids represented high-frequency response (HFR) and conventional-frequency response (CFR) categories. Ten men with flat, moderate, sensorineural hearing losses were employed as subjects. The results revealed that (a) percentage correct measures did not differentiate between the two experimental aids, (b) response time measures did discriminate between the aids, and (c) response time data revealed superior performance with the CFR compared to the HFR instrument. Implementation of this method is advocated to increase the discriminating power of word recognition testing.