Auditory perceptual & cognitive test battery (Cherri et al., 2024)

Purpose: Auditory perceptual and cognitive tasks can be useful as a long-term goal in guiding rehabilitation and intervention strategies in audiology clinics that mostly operate at a faster pace and on strict timelines. The rationale of this study was to assess test–retest reliability of an abbreviated test battery and evaluate age-related auditory perceptual and cognitive effects on these measures.

Method: Experiment 1 evaluated the test–retest repeatability of an abbreviated test battery and its use in an adverse listening environment. Ten participants performed two visits, each including four conditions: quiet, background noise, external noise, and background mixed with external noise. In Experiment 2, both auditory perceptual and cognitive assessments were collected from younger adults with normal hearing and older adults with and without hearing loss. The full test battery included measures of frequency selectivity, temporal fine structure and envelope processing, spectrotemporal and spatial processing and cognition, and an external measure of tolerance to background noise.

Results: Results from Experiment 1 showed good test–retest repeatability and nonsignificant effects from background or external noise. In Experiment 2, effects of age and hearing loss were shown across auditory perceptual and cognitive measures, except in measures of temporal envelope perception and tolerance to background noise.

Conclusions: These data support the use of an abbreviated test battery in relatively uncontrolled listening environments such as clinic waiting rooms. With an efficient test battery, perceptual and cognitive deficits can be assessed with minimal resources and little clinician involvement due to the automated nature of the test and the use of consumer-grade technology.

Supplemental Material S1. The full dataset for Experiment 1 including individual thresholds for each subject on the auditory perceptual measures across both sessions and four conditions: Quiet, background noise (BN) through headphones, external noise (XN), and both background and external noise (BNXN).

Supplemental Material S2. The full dataset for Experiment 2 including the thresholds and scores for each subject in the YNH, ONH, and OHL groups for all auditory perceptual and cognitive measures. Here we include the MTGD data used in the data analysis shown in the main document, which reflects the same and common MTGD task parameters completed by subjects.

Supplemental Material S3. Summary of mean thresholds, standard deviation, and post-hoc significance values for YNH, ONH, and OHL on the auditory perceptual, and cognitive tasks without excluding outliers. Significance values in bold indicate statistically significant differences between the groups as calculated by nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test. Fw: Forward. Bw: Backward.

Cherri, D., Ozmeral., E. J., Gallun, F. J., Seitz, A. R., & Eddins, D. A. (2024). Feasibility and repeatability of an abbreviated auditory perceptual and cognitive test battery. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2024_JSLHR-23-00590