Hearing speech is the fundamental basis for the presence of the human ear, and it is physically proved that it is created to do so. To evaluate hearing sensitivity to speech, the whispered voice has been used primarily because of the stability of its physical nature.
The theory of the whispered voice test had its beginning in the extensive and energic study of O. Wolf, F. Bezold, and C. Stumpf, and it has come into wide use as a basic clinical test.
S. Kawata devised an articulation testing method after World War II (1949) by use of voice tube with sound absorption shutters.
In 1957, the Japan Audiology Comittee decided upon the number and monosyllable list for testing the speech reception threshold and discrimination loss.
There are two ways to give stimuli, one by means of receiver and the other through use of a loudspeaker.
We use them case by case. For example evaluating for ones binaural summation effect through a high pass low pass filter, the receiver is employed. Evaluating the social adequacy in hearing speech, the loud speaker is used.
In this paper, two problems relating to the loud speaker system, i. e, masking and test retest variance are discussed and conclusions given.
1) When the test was carried out by the loud speaker system, the stimulous tone (monosyllable) was perceived by the opposite ear at 10 dB less than by the tested ear. Therefor the masking to the opposite ear required 10 dB less whitenoise than the stimulous tone, when the articulation test of the unilateral ear was intended.
2)(a) Twenty two out of forty ears with cochlear hard of hearing (55%) showed within 5 dB difference of speech hearing loss and within 10% difference of the maximum articulation score between test and retest.(b) There was at the most 10 dB difference of speech hearing in fifteen out of forty ears (37.5%).(c) Three out of fourty ears (7.5%) showed a maximum articulation score difference up to 20 %.
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