Department of Otolaryngology, Buddhist Dalin Tzu-Chi General Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan.
Int J Audiol. 2013 Feb;52(2):83-91. doi: 10.3109/14992027.2012.733422. Epub 2012 Nov 15.
Acceptable noise level (ANL) determines the maximum noise level that a listener is willing to accept while listening to speech. The objective of this study was to determine the equivalence of ANL measured using different speech stimuli for native speakers who lived in the U.S. and Taiwan.
ANLs were measured using English, Mandarin, and the international speech test signal (ISTS) at each site. The same babble noise was used across speech stimuli. The ANLs were considered equivalent if the difference was unlikely to be greater than 3 dB.
Thirty adults with normal hearing were recruited at each site.
For each site, the equivalence test suggested that the native-language and foreign-language ANLs were equivalent. Between the two sites, ANLs measured using the listener's native language were also equivalent. Although the ISTS ANL obtained within each site was equivalent to, and highly correlated to, the native-language ANL, the data were unable to confirm the equivalence of the ISTS ANLs obtained from the two sites.
The results suggested the possibility of directly comparing ANL measures carried out in different countries using different languages. However, it remains unclear if the ISTS can serve as an international ANL stimulus.
可接受噪声级（ANL）决定了听众在聆听言语时愿意接受的最大噪声级。本研究的目的是确定在美国和台湾居住的以英语为母语的人使用不同言语刺激测量的 ANL 的等效性。
在每个地点使用英语、普通话和国际言语测试信号（ISTS）测量 ANL。在不同的言语刺激中使用相同的背景噪声。如果差异不太可能大于 3 dB，则认为 ANL 等效。
在每个地点招募了 30 名听力正常的成年人。
对于每个地点，等效性测试表明母语和外语的 ANL 是等效的。在两个地点之间，使用受试者母语测量的 ANL 也是等效的。尽管在每个地点获得的 ISTS ANL 与母语 ANL 等效且高度相关，但数据无法确认两个地点获得的 ISTS ANLs 的等效性。
结果表明，使用不同语言在不同国家进行的 ANL 测量有可能直接进行比较。然而，目前尚不清楚 ISTS 是否可以作为国际 ANL 刺激。
