Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Bern University Hospital, Inselspital, Bern, Switzerland.
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, TUM School of Medicine, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
Trends Hear. 2023 Jan-Dec;27:23312165231191382. doi: 10.1177/23312165231191382.
Matrix sentence tests in noise can be challenging to the listener and time-consuming. A trade-off should be found between testing time, listener's comfort and the precision of the results. Here, a novel test procedure based on an updated maximum likelihood method was developed and implemented in a German matrix sentence test. It determines the parameters of the psychometric function (threshold, slope, and lapse-rate) without constantly challenging the listener at the intelligibility threshold. A so-called "credible interval" was used as a mid-run estimate of reliability and can be used as a termination criterion for the test. The procedure was evaluated and compared to a STAIRCASE procedure in a study with 20 cochlear implant patients and 20 normal hearing participants. The proposed procedure offers comparable accuracy and reliability to the reference method, but with a lower listening effort, as rated by the listeners ( points on a 10-point scale). Test duration can be reduced by 1.3 min on average when a credible interval of 2 dB is used as the termination criterion instead of testing 30 sentences. Particularly, normal hearing listeners and well performing, cochlear implant users can benefit from shorter test duration. Although the novel procedure was developed for a German test, it can easily be applied to tests in any other language.
在噪声环境中进行矩阵句子测试对测试者来说是一项极具挑战性且耗时的任务。因此，应该在测试时间、测试者的舒适度和结果的准确性之间找到一个平衡点。本研究中，我们开发并实施了一种基于更新的最大似然法的新型测试程序，用于德语矩阵句子测试。该程序可以在不持续挑战测试者的可懂度阈值的情况下，确定心理物理函数的参数（阈值、斜率和失误率）。所谓的“可信区间”可以作为可靠性的中期估计，并可用作测试的终止标准。我们在 20 名人工耳蜗植入患者和 20 名正常听力参与者的研究中对该程序进行了评估和比较。结果表明，与参考方法相比，该程序的准确性和可靠性相当，但测试者（10 分制）的评价显示，其测试者的聆听负担更低。如果使用 2dB 的可信区间作为终止标准，而不是测试 30 个句子，则可以将平均测试时长缩短 1.3 分钟。特别是对于正常听力者和表现良好的人工耳蜗使用者而言，他们将从更短的测试时长中受益。尽管该新型程序是为德语测试开发的，但它可以轻松应用于任何其他语言的测试。
