Narrow-Band Noise Audiometry for Hard-to-Test Patients

This study investigated the applicability, validity and reliability of narrow bands of white noise as test stimuli for obtaining audiograms under earphones with hard-to-test patients. The noise bands used were those produced by a commercially available narrow-band masking noise generator. The noise bands were calibrated re the 1964 ISO standard for pure tones with a group of normal hearers. Test results for a group of hearing-impaired children and for a group of mentally retarded children suggest that validity and reliability are better for noise-band audiometry than for pure-tone assessment in such subjects. The results with the mentally retarded group suggest that the task of attending to narrow-band noise stimuli is easier than the pure-tone listening task and is therefore applicable with a larger population of hard-to-test patients than is pure-tone audiometry. The noise-band procedure retains the advantages of pure tone audiometry in that it can be used as a means of monaural assessment of hearing sensitivity by frequency; and, like pure-tone audiometry, it tests functional hearing rather than peripheral sensitivity.