Mandarin BKB sentences in babble noise (Xi et al., 2023)

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the speech recognition equivalence of Mandarin Bamford-Kowal-Bench (BKB) sentence lists with adults and children with normal hearing.

Method: A total of 32 lists, each of nine sentences, were compiled from a corpus of BKB-like sentences with paired babble in Mandarin. Interlist equivalence, critical differences, and sensitivity of performance to signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) were examined. Experiment 1 included 64 native Mandarin-speaking adults with normal hearing. Experiment 2 included 54 native Mandarin-speaking children with normal hearing aged 4–6 years.

Results: Among the 32 sentence lists, 28 lists were confirmed to be equivalent in adults, with a mean SNR required for 50% correct (SNR50) of −5.9 ± 0.1 dB, a mean slope of 22.3%/dB ± 1.5%/dB, and a grand 95% critical difference subsequently calculated as 27.2% for score. From the 28 equivalent lists, 27 lists were selected and observed to be equivalent in children, with a mean SNR50 threshold of −2.0 ± 0.2 dB, a mean slope of 15.8%/dB ± 1.1%/dB, and a grand 95% critical difference of 24.6% for score.

Conclusions: The Mandarin BKB sentences in babble noise test offers an opportunity for clinicians and researchers to assess speech understanding in adults and preschool children in an efficient manner. For comparisons of performance in different test conditions, 28 equivalent lists are available for adults and 27 equivalent lists for preschool children. The 95% critical difference values can be used for total percentage correct or SNR for 50% performance. Future work will examine the clinical utility for school-age children and children who are deaf and hard of hearing.

Supplemental Material S1. The SNR levels at which each of the 32 lists were tested for each subject, with the number of measurements at -3, -5, -7, -9, respectively, and the total number of measurements at four SNR levels for each list.

Supplemental Material S2. The mean and SD of the 32 lists tested in NH adults at four SNRs. Lists that were significantly different from others according to ANOVA results were italicized.

Supplemental Material S3. The SNR levels at which each of the 27 lists were tested for each subject, with the number of measurements at +1, -2, -5, respectively, and the total number of measurements at three SNR levels for each list.

Supplemental Material S4. The mean and SD of the 27 lists tested in NH children at three SNRs.

Xi, X., Li, J.-N., Yuen, K. C. P., Chen, A.-T., Li, S.-Q., Hong, M.-D., Wang, Q., Ji, F., Dillon, H., Ching, T. Y. C. (2023). List equivalency and critical differences of a Mandarin Bamford-Kowal-Bench Sentence in Babble Noise Test for adults and preschool children with normal hearing. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 66(12), 5061–5070. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_JSLHR-23-00025