Reliability of the Contour Test in a population of adults with hearing loss.

With the increasing popularity of hearing aids with wide dynamic range compression, where the goal may be to restore normal perception of loudness, there has been renewed interest in obtaining individual loudness judgments in a clinically feasible, reliable manner as part of the hearing aid evaluation. The purpose of the current investigation was to evaluate the test-retest reliability of the Contour Test of Loudness Perception. Twenty-seven adults with hearing loss participated in the experiment. They produced loudness judgments on two separate occasions. Results as assessed by the intraclass correlation statistic revealed that the Contour Test has adequate consistency and absolute agreement across frequency and loudness categories over two test sessions separated in time. Results are discussed in relation to previous reliability findings from other loudness judgment methods and other subject populations.