title: Development of a speech-in-multitalker-babble paradigm to assess word-recognition performance.
abstract: A simple word-recognition task in multitalker babble for clinic use was developed in the course of four experiments involving listeners with normal hearing and listeners with hearing loss. In Experiments 1 and 2, psychometric functions for the individual NU No. 6 words from Lists 2, 3, and 4 were obtained with each word in a unique segment of multitalker babble. The test paradigm that emerged involved ten words at each of seven signal-to-babble ratios (S/B) from 0 to 24 dB. Experiment 3 examined the effect that babble presentation level (70, 80, and 90 dB SPL) had on recognition performance in babble, whereas Experiment 4 studied the effect that monaural and binaural listening had on recognition performance. For listeners with normal hearing, the 90th percentile was 6 dB S/B. In comparison to the listeners with normal hearing, the 50% correct points on the functions for listeners with hearing loss were at 5 to 15 dB higher signal-to-babble ratios.
authors.affiliation: James H. Quillen VA Medical Center, Mountain Home, Tennessee 37684, USA. RICHARD.WILSON2@MED.VA.GOV
authors.forename: Richard H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Wilson
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006316:Hearing Loss, High-Frequency / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D011594:Psychometrics; D013069:Speech Reception Threshold Test / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014825:Vocabulary