The listening in Spatialized Noise test: normative data for children.
The Listening in Spatialized Noise test (LISN) produces a three-dimensional auditory environment under headphones, using only a PC and an audiometer, and was designed to provide an ecologically valid assessment of auditory figure-ground skills in children. The listener is required to indicate the intelligibility level of a story presented at 0 degree azimuth, in the presence of distracter sentences simultaneously presented at either 0 degree or +/- 90 degrees azimuth. Various measures assess the extent to which either spatial, vocal, or spatial and vocal cues combined, increase a listener's ability to comprehend the story, without being affected by differences between participants in variables such as linguistic skills. There was a trend of improved performance with increasing age for 48 normally hearing seven-, eight-, and nine-year-olds, and sixteen adults. Whereas some significant differences were found between adults and children, there were no significant differences in performance between the seven-, eight-, and nine-year-olds on any measure, and no significant gender or practice effects were observed. Future studies on children with suspected auditory processing disorder were considered warranted.
Cameron
Sharon
S
National Acoustic Laboratories, Chatswood, NSW, Australia. Sharon.Cameron@nal.gov.au
Dillon
Harvey
H
Newall
Philip
P
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001302:Audiometry, Speech / Q000379:methods*; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009622:Noise; D012016:Reference Values; D013017:Sound Localization; D013065:Speech Intelligibility; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*