2001 Volume 11 Issue 3 Pages 190-194
The authors have developed a simulation software of practical masking in pure-tone audiometry fortraining audiologists. The trainee can choose a subject out of 20 audiograms with various hearing loss storedin a personal computer, and determine bilateral air and bone conduction hearing thresholds by changing signaland noise levels and monitoring the “subject's response”. The subject's response is determined from calculationabout the audibility of the test tone in either ear in the presence of masking noise, under the conditionof the air and bone conduction hearing thresholds of the subject. Test situations such as frequency, signaland noise levels, subject's response and measured thresholds are illustrated in the audiogram on the display.The software also can demonstrate masking procedure for the subject according to two methods;plateau searching and simultaneous changing levels of masking and test sounds. In each step of the demonstration, the decision based on the subject's response and the guide to the next step are presented in thetext-box to help learning correct procedure of masking.
