Band importance functions for audiological applications.

Recently, band importance functions have been developed for a number of speech tests used in audiology. These functions, as well as the importance functions for average (everyday) speech, are also being considered for the inclusion in the revised Articulation Index standard (submitted for vote to the Acoustical Society of America). In this paper, the band importance functions for different speech materials (usually reported in literature for 1/3 octave bands) have been recalculated to correspond to frequency bands normally used in audiological applications. In addition, criteria for selecting appropriate importance functions and transfer functions are discussed.