Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop, digitally record, evaluate, and equate Spanish trisyllabic words which could then be used in the measurement of the speech reception threshold. A selection of 90 frequently utilized trisyllabic words were selected and then digitally recorded by male and female talkers of Spanish and presented to 20 subjects with normal hearing beginning at 6 dB below their pure-tone average (PTA) and ascending in 2 dB increments until one of the following criteria had been met: (a) the participant responded correctly to 100% of the test items, or (b) the presentation level reached 16 dB HL. Using logistic regression, psychometric functions were calculated for each word. Twenty-eight trisyllabic words with the steepest psychometric function slopes were selected. To decrease the variability among the words the intensities were digitally adjusted to match the mean subject PTA (5.83 dB HL). The resulting lists included mean slopes at 50% threshold which ranged from 7.3 %/dB to 12.7 %/dB (M = 10.1) for the male talker recording and from 7.1 %/dB to 12.8 %/dB (M = 8.7) for the female talker. Digital recordings of the 28 final psychometrically equivalent trisyllabic words are available on compact disc.

Degree

College and Department

David O. McKay School of Education; Communication Disorders

Rights

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