Acceptable noise level with Danish, Swedish, and non-semantic speech materials.
OBJECTIVE
Acceptable noise level (ANL) has been established as a method to quantify the acceptance of background noise while listening to speech presented at the most comfortable level. The aim of the present study was to generate Danish, Swedish, and a non-semantic version of the ANL test and investigate normal-hearing Danish and Swedish subjects' performance on these tests.


METHODS
ANL was measured using Danish and Swedish running speech with two different noises: Speech-weighted amplitude-modulated noise, and multitalker speech babble. ANL was also measured using the non-semantic international speech test signal (ISTS) as speech signal together with the speech-weighted amplitude-modulated noise. The latter condition was identical in both populations.


METHODS
Forty Danish and 40 Swedish normal-hearing subjects.


RESULTS
In both populations ANL results were similar to previously reported results from American studies. Generally, significant differences were seen between test conditions using different types of noise within ears in each population. Significant differences were seen for ANL across populations, also when the non-semantic ISTS was used as speech signal.


CONCLUSIONS
The present findings indicate that there are extrinsic factors, such as instructions, affecting the ANL results.
Logopedics, Phoniatrics and Audiology Section, Department of Clinical Science, Lund University, Lund, Sweden. jonas.brannstrom@med.lu.se
K Jonas
KJ
Brännström
Johannes
J
Lantz
Lars Holme
LH
Nielsen
Steen Østergaard
SØ
Olsen
D000328:Adult; D003718:Denmark; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009622:Noise; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013063:Speech Discrimination Tests; D013548:Sweden; D055815:Young Adult