title: How does linguistic complexity influence intelligibility in a German audiometric sentence intelligibility test?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We investigated if linguistic complexity contributes to the variation of the speech reception threshold in noise (SRTN) and thus should be employed as an additional design criterion in sentence tests used for audiometry.
  
  
  METHODS
  Three test lists were established with sentences from the Göttingen sentence test ( Kollmeier & Wesselkamp, 1997 ). One list contained linguistically simple sentences, the other two lists contained sentences with two types of linguistic complexity. For each listener the SRTN was determined for each list.
  
  
  METHODS
  Younger and older listeners with normal hearing and older listeners with hearing impairment were tested.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Younger listeners with normal hearing showed significantly worse SRTNs on the complex lists than on the simple list. This difference could not be found for either of the older groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The effect of linguistic complexity on speech recognition seems to depend on age and/or hearing status. Hence, pending further research, linguistic complexity seems less relevant as a sentence test design criterion for clinical-audiological purposes, but we argue that a test with larger variation in linguistic complexity across sentences might show a relation between linguistic complexity and speech recognition even in a clinical population.
authors.affiliation: Carl von Ossietzky University, Oldenburg, Germany. verena.uslar@uni-oldenburg.de
authors.forename: Verena
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Uslar
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ruigendijk
authors.forename: Cornelia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hamann
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Brand
authors.forename: Birger
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kollmeier
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006309:Hearing / Q000502:physiology*; D006311:Hearing Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013063:Speech Discrimination Tests; D013065:Speech Intelligibility; D013067:Speech Perception; D055815:Young Adult