Psychology Department, University of California, Riverside, 900 University Avenue, Riverside, California 92507, USA.
Brain Game Center, University of California, Riverside, 1201 University Avenue #204, Riverside, California 92507, USA.
J Acoust Soc Am. 2022 Aug;152(2):807. doi: 10.1121/10.0013221.
Remote testing of auditory function can be transformative to both basic research and hearing healthcare; however, historically, many obstacles have limited remote collection of reliable and valid auditory psychometric data. Here, we report performance on a battery of auditory processing tests using a remotely administered system, Portable Automatic Rapid Testing. We compare a previously reported dataset collected in a laboratory setting with the same measures using uncalibrated, participant-owned devices in remote settings (experiment 1, n = 40) remote with and without calibrated hardware (experiment 2, n = 36) and laboratory with and without calibrated hardware (experiment 3, n = 58). Results were well-matched across datasets and had similar reliability, but overall performance was slightly worse than published norms. Analyses of potential nuisance factors such as environmental noise, distraction, or lack of calibration failed to provide reliable evidence that these factors contributed to the observed variance in performance. These data indicate feasibility of remote testing of suprathreshold auditory processing using participants' own devices. Although the current investigation was limited to young participants without hearing difficulties, its outcomes demonstrate the potential for large-scale, remote hearing testing of more hearing-diverse populations both to advance basic science and to establish the clinical viability of auditory remote testing.
远程听觉功能测试对基础研究和听力保健都具有变革性；然而，从历史上看，许多障碍限制了可靠和有效的听觉心理测量数据的远程采集。在这里，我们报告了使用远程管理系统 Portable Automatic Rapid Testing 进行一系列听觉处理测试的性能。我们将之前在实验室环境中收集的数据集与使用未经校准的、参与者自有设备在远程环境中进行的相同测量进行比较（实验 1，n=40），并比较了带有和不带有校准硬件的远程环境（实验 2，n=36）以及带有和不带有校准硬件的实验室环境（实验 3，n=58）中的相同测量。结果在不同数据集之间匹配良好，具有相似的可靠性，但总体性能略低于已发布的标准。对潜在干扰因素（如环境噪声、干扰或缺乏校准）的分析未能提供可靠证据，表明这些因素导致了观察到的性能差异。这些数据表明，使用参与者自己的设备进行阈上听觉处理的远程测试是可行的。尽管目前的研究仅限于没有听力障碍的年轻参与者，但研究结果表明，对更多听力多样化人群进行大规模、远程听力测试具有很大的潜力，可以促进基础科学的发展，并确立听觉远程测试的临床可行性。
