BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Speech audiometry is a useful test for obtaining practical information which could not be gotten from the pure-tone audiometer test. Nowadays, Hahm's Korean disyllabic word lists are the most commonly used word lists for the speech reception threshold test in Korea. The disyllabic word lists should be composed of spondaic words (equally stressed words). The aim of this study is to evaluate the characteristic frequency of Hahm's disyllabic word lists. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: Two of the Hahm's disyllabic word lists were evaluated. The word lists were analyzed using an acoustic analysis program that has the MATLAB function. RESULTS: The percentage of disyllabic words in the Hahm's disyllabic word lists that had the spondaic words pattern were 33%. The characteristic frequencies of these words were equally stressed above 1,000 Hz. Other disyllabic words showed an unequally stressed pattern. The percentage of words that had the first syllable stressed pattern was 31% and the percentage of second syllable stressed pattern was 36%. CONCLUSION: Some words, which are commonly used in the Hahm's disyllabic words lists, had an unequally stressed pattern. A new Korean dissyllabic word list needs to use more balanced words that have the characteristic frequency of each word.
Acoustics ; Audiometry, Speech ; Korea ; Speech Reception Threshold Test

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Young children response more readily to speech than to pure tone stimuli. Although there are several reports on modification of speech Reception Threshold Testing by picture identification in the States, none has been reported in Korea. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, we investigated the testing of SRT-PI in 102 young children of normal development between 24 and 36 months. All subjects were tested not only with SRT-PI but also with play audiometry in the same condition. RESULTS: Overall success rate of SRT-PI was 80.3% while only 3.9% of subjects were successful in play audiometry. The success rate of SRT-PI was significantly higher in the 29-36 months group than in the 24-28 months group. Test time and threshold did not show significant differences between in sex and age of subjects with regard to SRT-PI. CONCLUSION: SRT-PI is a simple, efficient and very useful test battery for audiologic evaluation in young children.
Audiometry ; Child* ; Humans ; Korea ; Speech Reception Threshold Test

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the frequencies of phonemes in the colloquial Korean language and compared them with those of the Korean spondee word list (KSWL). MATERIALS AND METHOD: One hundred fifty nine scripts (2, 312, 651 syllables) from several television dramas and news in Korean were selected as study materials. A computer program was developed and used to estimate the frequencies of phonemes from the pronunciated notation of the materials and KSWL. RESULTS: All materials except KSWL showed similar trends in the frequency of phonemes. The vowel distribution of KSWL mostly corresponded with the colloquial language. More (86.1% vs. 35.8%) final consonant phonemes were present in KSWL than in the colloquial Korean. The most prominent discrepancy existed in the initial consonant phonemes which had excessive post-obstruent tensing. CONCLUSION: The results of the present study recommend that KSWL needs to be modified in order to have more similar frequencies of phonemes with the actual frequencies of the colloquial Korean language.
Audiometry, Speech ; Drama ; Phonetics ; Speech Reception Threshold Test ; Television ; Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation*

BACKGROUNDMany factors interfering with a listener attempting to grasp speech in noisy environments. The spatial hearing by which speech and noise can be spatially separated may play a crucial role in speech recognition in the presence of competing noise. This study aimed to assess whether, and to what degree, spatial hearing benefit speech recognition in young normal-hearing participants in both quiet and noisy environments.

METHODSTwenty-eight young participants were tested by Mandarin Hearing In Noise Test (MHINT) in quiet and noisy environments. The assessment method used was characterized by modifications of speech and noise configurations, as well as by changes of speech presentation mode. The benefit of spatial hearing was measured by speech recognition threshold (SRT) variation between speech condition 1 (SC1) and speech condition 2 (SC2).

RESULTSThere was no significant difference found in the SRT between SC1 and SC2 in quiet. SRT in SC1 was about 4.2 dB lower than that in SC2, both in speech-shaped and four-babble noise conditions. SRTs measured in both SC1 and SC2 were lower in the speech-shaped noise condition than in the four-babble noise condition.

CONCLUSIONSpatial hearing in young normal-hearing participants contribute to speech recognition in noisy environments, but provide no benefit to speech recognition in quiet environments, which may be due to the offset of auditory extrinsic redundancy against the lack of spatial hearing.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Auditory Threshold ; physiology ; Female ; Hearing ; physiology ; Humans ; Male ; Noise ; Speech Perception ; physiology ; Speech Reception Threshold Test ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVE: To valuate test results of normal hearing persons with different ages using disyllabic mandarin speech test materials (MSTMs). Obtaining speech recognition threshold (SRT) and P-I function of different ages as clinical reference of hearing recovery and individual's ability to perceive and process speech. METHOD: One hundred and twenty subjects with normal hearing who speak mandarin well in their daily lives were enrolled in this study and divided into four groups (18-30, 31-40, 41-50 and 51-60 years old). Nine lists of disyllabic mandarin speech test materials with equal difficulty were utilized to test each age group. RESULT: There are good agreement between SRT and mean PTA thresholds (at 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, and 4.0 kHz) in each age group. PTA thresholds have little change as age increasing in age group 18-30, 31-40 and 41-50 (P > 0.05). PTA threshold of age group 51-60 increases more apparently compared with the other three groups (P < 0.01). SRT thresholds of each age group increase as age increasing (P < 0.05) and SRT threshold of age group 51-60 increases more apparently (P < 0.01). Slopes of P-I function in each age group are 5.8%/dB, 4.7%/dB, 3.8%/dB, 2.9%/dB respectively. CONCLUSION Nine lists of disyllabic MSTMs were used to test normal hearing persons in different ages and SRT and P-I function of four different age groups were obtained. As age increases, SRT increases and slope of P-1 functions decreases. PTA and SRT thresholds of age group 51-60 increase more apparently. The SRT and P-I functions provide reference data of normal hearing for utilizing of disyllabic mandarin speech test materials clinically.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Female ; Humans ; Language ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Phonetics ; Reference Values ; Speech Reception Threshold Test ; Young Adult

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to compare speech audiometry test results of the conventional Hahm's list with those of Korean standard word lists for adults (KS-WL-A) using both live voice and compact disc (CD) speech presentation modes. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: Eighty patients with sensorineural hearing loss and 23 control subjects with normal hearing participated in the study. Each hearing loss group comprised 20 subjects (mild, moderate, moderately severe, and severe hearing loss groups). Speech audiometry was performed to measure the speech recognition threshold (SRT) and word recognition score. KS-WL-A was presented either through a live voice mode or recorded CD materials. Test words from Hahm's list were presented using the live voice mode only. Pure tone audiometry was also conducted for all subjects. RESULTS: Differences between the SRT and pure tone average were within 6 dB in all subgroups in all three stimulation methods, indicating high reliability of the SRT in both the conventional and Korean standard methods. The moderate, moderately severe, and severe hearing loss groups showed lower word recognition scores in the CD mode with KS-WL-A than with the two live voice modes. CONCLUSION: Both the live voice mode and CD mode showed reliable speech audiometry test results in normal and hearing-impaired subjects. Although the CD mode is recommended to standardize test methods and reduce test errors, the live voice mode might be more effective for patients with moderate to severe hearing loss.
Adult* ; Audiometry ; Audiometry, Speech* ; Compact Disks ; Hearing Loss ; Hearing Loss, Sensorineural ; Hearing* ; Humans ; Speech Discrimination Tests ; Speech Reception Threshold Test ; Voice