Speech discrimination scores at low sensation levels as a possible index of malingering

Persons referred to the clinic for hearing evaluation, aged 17--35 yrs, who during the evaluation yielded inconsistent pure-tone and speech data and were suspected of malingering, were given a monosyllabic Hebraic PB test at 5, 10, 15, and 20 db re their admitted SRT. Group performances were compared at every presentation level to those of normal-hearing young adults. Both groups performed better as levels increased, but the suspected malingerers yielded SDSs at 5, 10, and 15 db significantly higher than controls by 20.8, 12.5, and 5.2 percentage points, respectively. The higher SDSs at low sensation levels (SLs) yielded by the suspected malingerers were assumed to be due to the exaggerated SRTs admitted by them. Furthermore, the performance - vs - level curve of the normals corresponded to that in the literature for English material, while the curve of the suspected malingerers was, in contrast, essentially different. It was concluded that with careful standardization and wide clinical and experimental use, collecting SDSs at low SLs re admitted SRT might produce a potentially valuable additional tool for uncovering malingering.