Mr. Tom Hutchison
Audiologists, associated with the military, have utilized a number of approaches to predict how personnel with varying degrees of hearing loss might carry out their individual missions within an environment of competing noise. It is well recognized that there is little difference in speech recognition scores, in-quiet, for normal hearing v. those with significant, high frequency, hearing loss. The present investigation compared the speech recognition abilities, in-noise, of active duty and civil service industrial workers, with a history of noise exposure. Scores were first derived using conventional, monitored-live-voice (MLV) testing, imbedded in speech noise at 50/50 and 70/70. These results were compared to those derived from the CD recorded Speech Perception & Recognition In Noise Test (SPRINT). Individuals were classified according to a hearing profile category, according to AR 40-501, for comparison purposes.
There were predictive indicators provided by both the 50/50 and 70/70 speech-in-noise tests as well as from the SPRINT, in each hearing category. There was a high correlation between the aggregated SPRINT scores and MLV scores obtained using the 70/70 condition but not for individuals listeners. SPRINT word errors were also compared to SPRINT phoneme errors to measure the effect of a higher number of measurable units.