Everyday Sentences Test

Performing a speech test For most hearing impaired people, their hearing loss is especially manifest in noisy conditions that create especially difficult communication. To obtain a realistic measure for this kind of hearing deficiency, audiologists perform speech-in-noise tests. Everyday communication situations can be simulated especially well by using speech-in-noise tests that present whole sentences as speech signals. Such tests determine the speech recognition threshold (SRT) in noise that corresponds to the signal-to-noise ratio at which 50% of the speech material is recognized correctly (counting the number of correctly repeated words). In addition, these tests can be performed in quiet to estimate the perception of very soft speech.

The SRT is measured using an adaptive procedure. The noise is presented at the same level at all times while the level of the speech is adaptively varied: depending on the test subject’s response, the speech level is either raised or lowered to increase or decrease intelligibility. This leads to a very efficient way of determining the SRT. If the test is performed in quiet, the level of the speech is varied adaptively as well.

These real life sentence tests use meaningful sentences. As the patients do not have to get used to unfamiliar speech material, there is no need for initial practice (see also Matrix sentence tests).

Sample sentences:

  •   Der Durst war kaum zu löschen. (Göttingen Sentence Test)
  •   The clown had a funny face. (BKB Sentence Test)
  •   Månen lyste på de sex männen. (Swedish Hint Test)
  •   Elle achète des médicaments à la pharmacie. (FIST Test)
  •   We gaan nog even langs zijn huis. (Versfeld Sentence Test)
  •   Ze szczytu widzimy jezioro. (Polish Hint Test)

Advantages:

  • Estimation of speech reception threshold in noise and in quiet.
  • High efficiency and accuracy due to precise matching of the noise spectrum to that of the speech material.
  • Short measurement times.
  • Adaptive level adjustment.
  • Measurement of special spatial speech and noise situations when using loudspeakers.

A test for speech recognition in noise is a standard test, which means that it is recommended to be executed for every patient.

Information about the software version of the test.

Literature:
Versfeld NJ, Daalder L, Festen JM, Houtgast T (2000) Method for the selection of sentence material for efficient measurement of the speech reception threshold. J Acoust Soc Am. 107, 1671-1684
Kollmeier B, Wesselkamp M (1997) Development and evaluation of a German sentence test for objective and subjective speech intelligibility assessment. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 102, 2412-2421
Hällgren M, Larsby B, Lyxell B, Arlinger S (2005) Speech understanding in quiet and noise, with and without hearing aids. Int J Audiol. 44(10), 574-583
Bench J, Kowal A, Bamford J (1979) The BKB (Bamford-Kowal-Bench) sentence lists for partially-hearing children. Br. J. Audiol. 13, 108-112

Partner institutions:

HörTech gGmbH, Oldenburg Division of Technical Audiology, Linköping University
 Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Katholieke Universiteit Leuven   Adam Mickiewicz University Poznan
 VU Amsterdam Medical Centre Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Medisch Centrum   University College London, Dept. of Phonetics and Linguistics

Further test procedures in the Auditory Profile.