K M Pusakulich | PubMed Health

PubMed1989

The Connected Speech Test version 3: audiovisual administration.

The Connected Speech Test (CST) is used to measure the intelligibility of everyday speech; it is intended primarily for quantifying hearing aid benefit. The test consists of 48 passages of conversationally produced connected speech, each passage concerning a familiar topic and comprising 10 sentences. Listeners are apprised of the passage topic in advance and are required to repeat the sentences one at a time. Each passage contains 25 scoring words. The test is recorded audiovisually. In previous papers, we have reported the development of the test materials and investigations of the use of the audio portion with normally hearing and hearing-impaired listeners. Audio versions of the test have been developed for use with normal hearers (CST version 1), and for hearing-impaired listeners (CST version 2). In the present paper, we report a study of the test administered audiovisually. Twenty-six normally hearing subjects responded to audiovisual presentation of all 48 test passages. On the basis of the results, a new version of the test (CST version 3) was generated. In this new version, the test passages are presented in designated sets of four or six passages. The critical difference between two scores is estimated to be the same for both audio and audiovisual administration.

Adult↗

PubMed1988

Use of the Connected Speech Test (CST) with hearing-impaired listeners.

Two studies were performed in which hearing-impaired subjects responded to the Connected Speech Test (CST). In experiment 1, 40 subjects, divided into four groups according to extent and configuration of hearing loss, responded to the CST version 1 (CSTv1). This version of the test consisted of 57 passages of connected speech: 48 test passages and 9 practice passages. It was developed on the basis of data for normal-hearing listeners. Performance of hearing-impaired listeners for the CSTv1 revealed that, although the passages were equal in average intelligibility for normal hearers, they were not equally intelligible for hearing-impaired persons. Based on results of data analyses, the 57 passages were reconstituted into 28 pairs of passages: 24 test pairs and 4 practice pairs. The pairs were equal in average intelligibility for both normal and hearing-impaired listeners. This form of the test was named the CST version 2 (CSTv2). In experiment 2, an additional 23 hearing-impaired subjects responded to the CSTv2. Critical differences and the slope of the signal to babble ratio (SBR) function were determined for the CSTv2 for hearing-impaired listeners. When two CSTv2 pairs were used per score, the 95% critical difference for hearing-impaired subjects was about 15.5 rationalized arcsine units (rau). The mean SBR function slope for hearing-impaired listeners was 8.5 rau/dB. Comparing the critical difference with the SBR function slope, it may be seen that, for hearing-impaired listeners, differences in intelligibility equivalent to a 2 dB change in SBR can be detected with CST scores based on mean performance across two passage pairs.

Adult↗