In defense of the right and left audiograms: a reply to Coren (1989) and Coren and Hakstian (1990)

Coren (1989) noticed that the various air-conduction pure-tone thresholds obtained from one ear of an individual in quiet tend to display a high correlation. In addition, Coren and Hakstian (1990) reported a consistently high correlation between pure-tone thresholds in the two ears of the same individual. On the basis of these observations, these authors proposed that pure-tone thresholds measured at audiometric frequencies in one ear, and those measured in both ears of an individual, be collapsed into a single average threshold value. The present paper disputes the usefulness and the appropriateness of such a proposal.