Understanding speech in background noise is occasionally difficult for normal hearing listeners and is often impossible for the listener with sensorineural hearing loss. The ability to understand speech in noise depends upon multiple factors such as the characteristics of the speech signal, the signal-to-noise ratio, and the listener's degree of hearing impairment. A routine hearing evaluation usually does not provide ample information about a listener's functional communication abilities. The Hearing-in-Noise Test (HINT) developed by The House Ear Institute provides an efficient and reliable method for evaluating an individual's suprathreshold speech understanding ability in quiet and in noise. The purpose of this pilot study was to investigate monaural speech reception thresholds for sentences (RTS) in quiet and in noise using the standardized Hearing-in-Noise Test (HINT). Data was collected from one clinical setting using twenty-five subjects with bilateral normal hearing (WNL) and twenty subjects with bilaterally symmetrical sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). Subject age ranged from 40 to 65 years. The study results were generally in agreement with the HINT norms. It was concluded that administering the HINT monaurally under headphones could differentiate between normal hearing individuals and individuals with cochlear hearing loss. The SNHL group exhibited higher RTSs than the WNL group in both quiet and in noise. The mean RTS difference between the two groups in quiet was 14.56 dB while the mean RTS difference in noise was only 2.85 dB. Surprisingly, the difference between the two subject groups in quiet was greater than was expected.

The ability to understand speech in noise has a profound impact on everyday communication, but cannot be predicted on the basis of puretone thresholds and/or performance on tests of speech in quiet. The aim of this thesis was to develop an adaptive speech in noise test based on the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) that would be reliable and valid for speakers of New Zealand English (NZE). The methodology used followed the standard procedures for developing the HINT in a new language. Five hundred sentences of 5-7 syllables were collected from New Zealand children’s books and recorded by a native NZE speaker. Nine normal-hearing native NZE speakers aged 18-50 listened to three sets of 50 sentences at -2, -4 and -7 dB signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) in order to establish a performance-intensity (PI) function for these sentences. Three groups of 10 participants were scored on their performance on the sentences in 65 dBA speech-weighted noise at varying SNR. After each round of testing with a new group of participants, the SNR of each sentence was adjusted in order to get closer to 70% intelligibility for all sentences. Sentences that were too easy or difficult or did not respond to adjustments were discarded. Once the remaining 240 sentences were of approximately equal intelligibility, 24 phonemically matched lists of 10 sentences were formed and tested on 12 participants using the adaptive HINT software. The overall mean threshold was calculated as -6 dB, s.d=1.1 dB. The lists were combined to form 12 lists of 20 sentences which would become the NZHINT. Time delays meant that the collection of normative data could not be completed.

Professional research project (Au.D.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 25 pages. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: Understanding speech in background noise is occasionally difficult for normal hearing listeners and is often impossible for the listener with sensorineural hearing loss. The ability to understand speech in noise depends upon multiple factors such as the characteristics of the speech signal, the signal-to-noise ratio, and the listener's degree of hearing impairment. A routine hearing evaluation usually does not provide ample information about a listener's functional communication abilities. The Hearing-in-Noise Test (HINT) developed by The House Ear Institute provides an efficient and reliable method for evaluating an individual's suprathreshold speech understanding ability in quiet and in noise. / ABSTRACT: The purpose of this pilot study was to investigate monaural speech reception thresholds for sentences (RTS) in quiet and in noise using the standardized Hearing-in-Noise Test (HINT). Data was collected from one clinical setting using twenty-five subjects with bilateral normal hearing (WNL) and twenty subjects with bilaterally symmetrical sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). Subject age ranged from 40 to 65 years. The study results were generally in agreement with the HINT norms. It was concluded that administering the HINT monaurally under headphones could differentiate between normal hearing individuals and individuals with cochlear hearing loss. The SNHL group exhibited higher RTSs than the WNL group in both quiet and in noise. The mean RTS difference between the two groups in quiet was 14.56 dB while the mean RTS difference in noise was only 2.85 dB. Surprisingly, the difference between the two subject groups in quiet was greater than was expected. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.