New speech-in-noise test in different types of hearing impairment

A new test was developed to assess speech recognition in noise. The test was designed to be run in a personal computer supplied with a sound card. One thousand disyllabic test words and noise were stored in digitized form on the hard disk of the computer. The measure given by this test is speech recognition threshold in noise (SRTN) corresponding to 50% recognition. The present series of 180 cases with various hearing impairments and 39 controls were examined with speech-in-noise test and conventional audiometry. In keeping with earlier studies, the SRTN turned out to be significantly elevated in cases with sensorineural hearing impairment; this elevation was related to the grade of hearing impairment. On the other hand, no essential difference was seen between the SRTN values of subjects with mixed hearing impairment and persons with normal hearing.