Assessing functional auditory performance in hearing-impaired listeners with an updated version of the Modified Rhyme Test

Pure-tone audiometric thresholds are the gold standard for assessing hearing loss, but most clinicians agree that the audiogram must be paired with a speech-in-noise test to make accurate predictions about how listeners will perform in difficult auditory environments. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a six-alternative closed-set speech-in-noise test based on the Modified Rhyme Test (House, 1965). This 104-word test was carefully constructed to present stimuli with and without ITD-based spatial cues at two different levels and two different SNR values. This allows the results to be analyzed not only in terms of overall performance, but also in terms of the impact of audibility, the slope of the psychometric function, and the amount of spatial release from masking for each individual listener. Preliminary results from normal and hearing-impaired listeners show that the increase in overall level from 70 dB to 78 dB that was implemented in half of the trials had little impact on performance. This suggests that the test is relatively effective at isolating speech-in-noise distortion from the effects of reduced audibility at high frequencies. Data collection is currently underway to compare performance in the MRT test to performance in a matrix sentence task in a variety of realistic operational listening environments. [The views expressed in this abstract are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the DoD or the US Government.]