Performance of normally hearing and hearing-impaired listeners using a German version of the SPIN test

Various stages in the development of a German version of the English SPIN (Speech Performance in Noise) test have been reported previously by the authors (Züst & Tschopp, 1993). The test forms consist of 15 sentences each with a length of five to nine syllables. The forms have been constructed with either low predictable (LP) final words or high predictable (HP) final words, based upon the amount of contextual information available in the sentence. The test is performed with a background noise and uses adaptive testing strategies. The proportion of HP to LP responses is compared. Normally, scores of the HP segment are higher than those of the LP segment of the test, because the increased contextual information contributes to a better understanding of the HP final words. The SPIN test results in young normally hearing listeners (n = 12), elderly normally hearing listeners (n = 13), young hearing-impaired subjects (n = 14) and elderly hearing-impaired subjects (n = 19) are reported. The most important findings were that the LP-HP difference was not dependent on the degree of peripheral hearing loss, and that no age-related effects could be demonstrated. The SPIN test results were compared with conventional speech audiometric parameters, hearing threshold levels for pure tones and self-reported hearing handicap. Low to moderate correlations were present but were not consistent across comparisons.