Between and within listener variability in response to CID W-22 presented in noise

Two studies were conducted wherein college students with normal hearing sensitivity listened to CID W-22 recordings (Technisonics Studios) mixed with white noise. Four-word discrimination scores were obtained from each listener. In one study, a speech-to-noise ratio of approximately +1 dB was used whereas +7 dB was used in the other. Large standard deviations and low correlations indicate that the use of background noise with this clinical word discrimination test is associated with a relatively large amount of response variability and unreliability. These results suggest that the performance score obtained from a single list of CID W-22 presented in noise may not be a reliable indicator of a listener's true discrimination ability and therefore clinical interpretation of a listener's performance should be made with caution.