Detection and recognition of octave-band sound effects.

The goal of this study was to determine whether selected sound effects that are spectrally limited to an octave band width could be used as alternative stimuli to pure tones when testing children and other special populations. The uniqueness of octave-band sound effects is that they retain the natural character of everyday sounds while providing frequency-specific information about hearing sensitivity. In this study, 20 normal-hearing adults were asked to detect and recognize octave-band filtered musical and environmental sounds presented in quiet and in multitalker noise. Detection and recognition thresholds for the filtered sound effects were compared with respective pure-tone thresholds obtained at 250, 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz for the same subjects. Results indicate that filtered sound effects are a promising alternative to pure-tone stimuli for use in audiometric tests. Applications and limitations of filtered sound effects as test stimuli for testing children and adults are discussed.