Melanie A Zokoll1, Dilek Fidan2, Didem Türkyılmaz3, Sabine Hochmuth1, İclâl Ergenç4, Gonca Sennaroğlu3, Birger Kollmeier1,5,6. 1. a * Medizinische Physik and Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg , Germany. 2. b Department of Turkish Language Teaching , Kocaeli University , Kocaeli , Turkey. 3. c Audiology Department Health Sciences Faculty , Hacettepe University , Ankara , Turkey. 4. d Department of Linguistics , Ankara University , Ankara , Turkey. 5. e Hörzentrum Oldenburg GmbH , Oldenburg , Germany. 6. f HörTech gGmbH , Oldenburg , Germany.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: The Turkish matrix sentence test, TURMatrix, was developed for precise, internationally comparable speech intelligibility testing. DESIGN: The TURMatrix comprises a base matrix of ten well-known Turkish names, numbers, adjectives, objects, verbs, from which syntactically fixed sentences were randomly composed. Test conduction may be in an open-set (standard), or closed-set response format. Homogeneity in intelligibility of the test material was optimized by applying level adaptations (maximal ± 3 dB) based on word-specific speech reception thresholds (SRTs). Test list equivalence was verified and reference values were determined. STUDY SAMPLE: Thirty-eight native listeners of Turkish with normal hearing. RESULTS: After training, mean SRT and slope of the final test lists were -8.3 ± 0.2 dB SNR and 14.1 ± 1.0%/dB, respectively (fixed SNR measurements; inter-list variability). For adaptive measurements, average across listeners was -7.2 ± 0.7 dB SNR in the open-set and -7.9 ± 0.7 dB SNR in the closed-set response format. Mean SRT for adaptive measurements in the open-set response format in quiet was 20.3 ± 4.1 dB. Individual SRTs in quiet correlated more closely with audiograms than with SRTs in noise. CONCLUSIONS: The TURMatrix was developed according to European standards and provides reliable speech intelligibility measurements in noise and quiet.
OBJECTIVES: The Turkish matrix sentence test, TURMatrix, was developed for precise, internationally comparable speech intelligibility testing. DESIGN: The TURMatrix comprises a base matrix of ten well-known Turkish names, numbers, adjectives, objects, verbs, from which syntactically fixed sentences were randomly composed. Test conduction may be in an open-set (standard), or closed-set response format. Homogeneity in intelligibility of the test material was optimized by applying level adaptations (maximal ± 3 dB) based on word-specific speech reception thresholds (SRTs). Test list equivalence was verified and reference values were determined. STUDY SAMPLE: Thirty-eight native listeners of Turkish with normal hearing. RESULTS: After training, mean SRT and slope of the final test lists were -8.3 ± 0.2 dB SNR and 14.1 ± 1.0%/dB, respectively (fixed SNR measurements; inter-list variability). For adaptive measurements, average across listeners was -7.2 ± 0.7 dB SNR in the open-set and -7.9 ± 0.7 dB SNR in the closed-set response format. Mean SRT for adaptive measurements in the open-set response format in quiet was 20.3 ± 4.1 dB. Individual SRTs in quiet correlated more closely with audiograms than with SRTs in noise. CONCLUSIONS: The TURMatrix was developed according to European standards and provides reliable speech intelligibility measurements in noise and quiet.
Keywords:
Speech audiometry; matrix sentence test, Turkish; signal-to-noise ratio (SNR); speech reception threshold (SRT); speech recognition in noise