title: Development of a German reading span test with dual task design for application in cognitive hearing research.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To report the development of a standardized German version of a reading span test (RST) with a dual task design. Special attention was paid to psycholinguistic control of the test items and time-sensitive scoring. We aim to establish our RST version to use for determining an individual's working memory in the framework of hearing research in German contexts.
  
  
  METHODS
  RST stimuli were controlled and pretested for psycholinguistic factors. The RST task was to read sentences, quickly determine their plausibility, and later recall certain words to determine a listener's individual reading span. RST results were correlated with outcomes of additional sentence-in-noise tests measured in an aided and an unaided listening condition, each at two reception thresholds.
  
  
  METHODS
  Item plausibility was pre-determined by 28 native German participants. An additional 62 listeners (45-86 years, M = 69.8) with mild-to-moderate hearing loss were tested for speech intelligibility and reading span in a multicenter study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The reading span test significantly correlated with speech intelligibility at both speech reception thresholds in the aided listening condition.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our German RST is standardized with respect to psycholinguistic construction principles of the stimuli, and is a cognitive correlate of intelligibility in a German matrix speech-in-noise test.
authors.affiliation: * Cluster of Excellence 'Hearing4all' , Oldenburg , Germany.
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Carroll
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Meis
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schulte
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vormann
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kießling
authors.forename: Hartmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Meister
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000368:Aged; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000503:physiopathology; D006320:Hearing Tests / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009622:Noise; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D011930:Reaction Time; D011932:Reading; D012015:Reference Standards; D059629:Signal-To-Noise Ratio; D013065:Speech Intelligibility / Q000502:physiology*; D013067:Speech Perception
keywords: Test design; dual task; speech intelligibility; verbal working memory