title: Development and preliminary evaluation of a new test of ongoing speech comprehension.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The overall goal of this work is to create new speech perception tests that more closely resemble real world communication and offer an alternative or complement to the commonly used sentence recall test.
  
  
  METHODS
  We describe the development of a new ongoing speech comprehension test based on short everyday passages and on-the-go questions. We also describe the results of an experiment conducted to compare the psychometric properties of this test to those of a sentence test.
  
  
  METHODS
  Both tests were completed by a group of listeners that included normal hearers as well as hearing-impaired listeners who participated with and without their hearing aids.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, the psychometric properties of the two tests were similar, and thresholds were significantly correlated. However, there was some evidence of age/cognitive effects in the comprehension test that were not revealed by the sentence test.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This new comprehension test promises to be useful for the larger goal of creating laboratory tests that combine realistic acoustic environments with realistic communication tasks. Further efforts will be required to assess whether the test can ultimately improve predictions of real-world outcomes.
authors.affiliation: a * National Acoustic Laboratories and the HEARing Cooperative Research Centre, Australian Hearing Hub, Macquarie University , Australia.|b Department of Speech , Language and Hearing Sciences, Boston University , Boston , USA.
authors.forename: Virginia
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Best
authors.affiliation: a * National Acoustic Laboratories and the HEARing Cooperative Research Centre, Australian Hearing Hub, Macquarie University , Australia.
authors.forename: Gitte
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Keidser
authors.affiliation: a * National Acoustic Laboratories and the HEARing Cooperative Research Centre, Australian Hearing Hub, Macquarie University , Australia.|c Audiology Section, Department of Linguistics , Australian Hearing Hub, Macquarie University , Australia.
authors.forename: Jӧrg M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Buchholz
authors.affiliation: a * National Acoustic Laboratories and the HEARing Cooperative Research Centre, Australian Hearing Hub, Macquarie University , Australia.
authors.forename: Katrina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Freeston
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D032882:Comprehension; D005260:Female; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D013063:Speech Discrimination Tests / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D013067:Speech Perception; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Speech comprehension; hearing aids; hearing loss; realistic