Influence of the age, level of schooling and gender on the occurrence of the DSI test pauses.

PURPOSE

To evaluate the influence of variables age, educational status and sex in the occurrence of pauses after the standard time in the dichotic sentence identification test.

METHODS

This investigation included 200 right-handed subjects divided into four groups according to age: group I - from 13 to 19 years old, group II - from 20 to 29 years old, group III - from 30 to 39 years old and group IV - from 40 to 49 years old. Each group contained 50 subjects (25 men and 25 women) matched by educational level. The following eligibility criteria was adopted: Brazilian Portuguese mother language, listeners, and fluent readers independent of the educational level. It was applied the dichotic sentence identification test in the steps of binaural integration, directed listening, and it was noted the need for pauses in the test after the standard time. The descriptive and inferential statistics were performed.

RESULTS

For the binaural integration stages there was a positive association between age and pause occurrence. The educational variable presented a negative association with the occurrence of pauses in all stages of the DSI test. The gender variable showed no association with the occurrence of pause in any of the test steps.

CONCLUSION

With increasing age, there is an increase in the incidence of pauses in the binaural integration stages of the test. The more years of study the less chance that the individual will need breaks to perform the test at all stages of presentation. The variable gender did not influence the occurrence of pauses.