Within recent decades speech audiometry materials have been developed in various languages in order to more accurately identify and evaluate hearing impairment in native speakers. This advantage, however, is not available to native Cebuano speakers. The purpose of this study was to develop, digitally record, evaluate, and psychometrically equate a set of Cebuano bisyllabic word lists for use in measuring word recognition ability. This process began with recording 260 commonly used bisyllabic Cebuano words by a native speaker noted for his quality and pleasantness of speech in his native tongue. These recordings were then evaluated by 20 normally hearing native Cebuano listeners (21 to 63 years old). Of these words, 200 were selected and then divided into 4 lists of 50 bisyllabic words and 8 half-lists of 25 bisyllabic words. Statistical analysis of the word recognition materials found no significant difference among the lists or half-lists. The mean psychometric function slope at 50% for the bisyllabic word lists and half-lists is 7.3%/dB. The mean 50% threshold for the lists was 19.7 dB HL (SD = 0.1dB). Adjustments were not necessary. The results of the current study are comparable to those found in other languages. Digital recordings of the bisyllabic word lists are available on compact disc.

The use of speech audiometry is essential in audiological testing. One of the most important elements of speech audiometry is speech reception threshold. To provide services for the growing population of non-English speaking people, audiologists need speech audiometry materials in a variety of languages. The purpose of this study was to develop, digitally record, evaluate, and equate Arabic bisyllabic words for use in testing speech reception threshold. Ninety frequently used bisyllabic words were digitally recorded by a male talker of standard Arabic. These words were presented to 20 normally hearing subjects in 2 dB increments at intensity levels ranging from -10 to 22 dB HL. Psychometric functions were then determined for all 90 words using logistic regression. Words with steep psychometric functions were selected for inclusion in the test CD. The intensities of these selected words were adjusted to match the mean subject PTA within 2 dB, and a list of words was developed which was homogenous with respect to slope and audibility. The words are contained on tracks 2 and 3 of the Brigham Young University Arabic Speech Audiometry Materials (Disc 1.0) CD.

The aim of this study was to develop, digitally record, evaluate, and psychometrically equate a set of Taiwan Mandarin bisyllabic word lists to be used for word recognition testing. Frequently used bisyllabic words were selected and digitally recorded by male and female talkers of Taiwan Mandarin. Twenty normally hearing subjects were presented each word to find the percentage of words which they could correctly recognize. Each word was measured at 10 intensity levels (-5 to 40 dB HL) in increments of 5 dB. Logistic regression was used to include 200 words with the steepest logistic regression slopes in four psychometrically equivalent word lists of 50 words each with eight half-lists of 25 words each. Digital recordings of the psychometrically equivalent bisyllabic word recognition lists are available on compact disc.

The purpose of this study was to develop digitally recorded speech audiometry materials in the Japanese language to evaluate Speech Reception Threshold (SRT) and speech discrimination. Trisyllabic words were used to evaluate the SRT and bisyllabic words were used for speech discrimination. Words were recorded by one native female talker and one native male talker who were judged as having standard Japanese dialects. Twenty native Japanese speakers between the ages of 20 and 32 were used as subjects to evaluate 69 trisyllabic words across 13 different intensity levels. The 25 trisyllabic words with the steepest psychometric function (%/dB) were selected for inclusion in the final CD. The final trisyllabic words were digitally adjusted so that the threshold of each word was equal to the mean PTA (3.42 dB HL) of all the subjects. The mean psychometric function (%/dB) at 50% for the trisyllabic words was 9.6 %/dB for the male talker and 7.7 %/dB for the female talker. The same 20 subjects were also used to evaluate 240 bisyllabic words across 10 different intensity levels. A logistic regression was used to obtain regression slopes for each of the 240 words. The 200 bisyllabic words with the steepest slope were selected for inclusion in the final CD. Four lists of 50 words each and eight half-lists of 25 words each were created from the selected bisyllabic words. A chi-square statistic revealed no significant differences among the lists or half-lists. The mean psychometric function at 50% for the bisyllabic lists and half-lists was 5.9 %/dB for the male talker and 5.2 %/dB for the female talker.

The development of digitally recorded speech audiometry materials in Mandarin Chinese has been limited to date. High quality materials proliferate in the English language and have been developed for other languages such as Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, French, Italian, Polish, and Russian. The aims of this study were to develop, digitally record, evaluate, and equate words and word lists in Mandarin Chinese to use for speech reception threshold testing and for speech discrimination testing. The words that were evaluated were chosen from a Chinese frequency usage dictionary. One native male and one native female talker recorded the words onto a compact disc. These words were then evaluated on 20 normally-hearing subjects, all of whom were natives of mainland China. Following the tests, the words and word lists were analyzed using logistic regression. For speech reception threshold testing, 24 Mandarin Chinese trisyllabic words with steep psychometric function slopes were selected. Their intensities were adjusted to match the mean subject pure-tone average of 3.0 dB HL. The mean slopes for these selected male and female trisyllabic words were 11.3 %/dB and 12.1 %/dB, respectively. For the speech discrimination testing, the 200 bisyllabic words with the steepest logistic regression slopes were divided among four psychometrically equivalent lists of 50 words each and eight half-lists of 25 words each. The intensity of each word list was digitally adjusted so that the threshold of each list was equal to the midpoint between the mean thresholds of the male and female half-lists. All lists were homogeneous with respect to audibility and psychometric function slope. Digital recordings of the psychometrically equivalent word lists are included on a compact disc.

The purpose of this study was to create psychometrically equivalent word lists in the language of Cantonese for word recognition testing. Frequently used bisyllabic Cantonese words were recorded by a native female and male talker. The word lists were evaluated by administering the word recognition lists to 20 native speakers of Cantonese with normal hearing. Each list was presented at 10 different intensity levels ranging from -5 to 40 dB HL in 5 dB increments. Logistic regression was used to determine the words with the steepest logistic regression slopes. The 200 words with the steepest slopes were then formulated into four lists of 50 words and eight half-lists of 25 words. The mean psychometric slope value at the 50% location for the male talker was 7.5%/dB while the mean slope for the female talker was slightly steeper at 7.6%/dB. The word lists were digitally recorded on compact discs for worldwide use.