HINT List Equivalency Using Older Listeners

HINT list equivalency was examined using 24 listeners between 60 and 70 years old who had sensorineural hearing impairment. A Greco-Latin square design was used to ensure that each list was presented an equal number of times per condition. Four conditions were tested: (1) speech in quiet, (2) speech in 65 dBA noise with noise at 0° azimuth, (3) speech in 65 dBA noise with noise at 90° azimuth, and (4) speech in 65 dBA noise with noise at 270° azimuth. Speech materials were always presented at 0° azimuth. Overall mean scores ranged from 29.9 dBA for the quiet condition to 63.4 dBA for the noise at 0° azimuth condition. A significant difference was found between Lists 13 and 16 only. This was attributed to audibility differences among the listeners. Therefore, the 25 HINT lists should be considered equivalent for older populations with similar hearing impairment. The HINT lists can be used for relative measures, such as comparison of aided versus unaided sentence SRTs or comparison of 2 different hearing aids.

KEY WORDS: HINT, list equivalency, elderly, speech recognition

Submitted on January 22, 1998
Accepted on August 5, 1998

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