Feasibility of an Adaptive Version of the Everyday Conversational Sentences in Noise Test

Purpose: To investigate potential reasons for the mismatch between laboratory/ clinic-based sentence -in -noise performance and real -world listening abilities, we recently developed a corpus of natural, spontaneously spoken speech with three vocal effort levels (Everyday Conversational Sentences in Noise [ECOSiN]). Here, we examined the feasibility of using the ECO-SiN corpus for adaptive speech -in -noise testing, which might be a desirable format in certain situations (e.g., during a clinical visit). Method: Ten young, normal -hearing adults, along with 20 older adults with hearing loss participated in the study. Speech reception thresholds (SRTs) were obtained using ECO-SiN sentences, which were systematically compared to the SRTs obtained using traditional Bamford-Kowal-Bench-like sentences. Results: Results demonstrated the properties of the test compared favorably with those of a standard test based on scripted and clearly spoken sentences. Moreover, whereas normal -hearing listeners received a benefit from an increase in vocal effort, the participants with hearing loss showed a disbenefit that increased with increasing hearing loss. Conclusion: The adaptive version of the ECO-SiN test is feasible for research and clinical testing.