title: [Test-retest reliability of Mandarin acceptable noise level].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate test-retest reliability of Mandarin acceptable noise level(M-ANL) test materials.
  
  
  METHODS
  M-ANL was evaluated during three test sessions approximately one week apart, by testing 30 Mandarin-speaking people aged from 21 to 28 with normal aural/oral communication abilities. The participants completed the preference for background noise questionnaire before the first session. Analysis of the test-retest results were administered by SPSS 17.0 (Statistically Package for the Social Sciences Software Version 17.0).
  
  
  RESULTS
  ANLs in the three sessions were (8.1 +/- 2.9), (7.4 +/- 2.2), (7.6 +/- 2.5)dB S/N, respectively. The correlation coefficients were 0.722, 0.746 and 0.849 between two of the three sessions. The correlation coefficients of the ANL and 7 questions of the questionnaire were below 0.3.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  M-ANL test materials are found to have good test-retest reliability. Listeners' preference for background noise is not related to their acceptance of background noise. Listeners cannot accurately assess their ability to accept background noise.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing Institute of Otolarygology, Key Laboratory of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Ministry of Education, Beijing 100730, China.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jianyong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Shuo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yanjun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Yuling
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Dandan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ren
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009622:Noise; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult