Improving the efficiency of speech-in-noise hearing screening tests

Objective: Speech-in-noise hearing screening tests have become increasingly popular. These tests follow an adaptive procedure with a fixed number of presentations to estimate the speech reception threshold. The speech reception threshold is compared with an established cutoff signal to noise ratio (SNR) for a pass result or refer result. A fixed SNR procedure was developed to improve the efficiency of speech-in-noise hearing screening tests. Design: The cutoff SNR is used for all presentations in the fixed-SNR procedure. After each response a reliable test result is given (pass/refer) or an extra stimulus is presented. The efficiency and pass/refer rates between the adaptive procedure and the fixed-SNR procedure were compared. Results: An average reduction of 67% in the number of presentations can be achieved (from 25 to an average of 8.3 presentations per test). Conclusions: The fixed-SNR procedure is superior in efficiency to the adaptive procedure while having nearly equal refer and pass rates.