Effects of Stimulus Material on the Dichotic Listening Performance of Patients with Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Dichotic listening scores were obtained from 27 patients with sensorineural hearing loss in response to four dichotic speech tests: digits, vowel words, consonant words, and CV nonsense syllables. Monotic performance-intensity functions for each ear were defined with the CV syllables, and the four dichotic tests were administered at an intensity that produced asymptotic monotic performance for both ears with the CV syllables. Four blocks of 30 pairs of items per block were presented for each dichotic test, which produced 240 responses per test for each patient. Reliable differences among left-ear scores, right-ear scores, performance level, and the ear advantage were observed among the four tests. The digit test appeared to be most promising for assessing central auditory function when the patient had a sensorineural hearing loss because performance for the digits was only slightly affected by the peripheral loss.