Development of suprathreshold word recognition test for Russian-speaking patients.

This paper describes the development and normalization of a computerized word recognition test for speakers of the Russian language: the Russian Picture Identification Task (RPIT). The test uses a picture-pointing response, in which a patient selects, on a computer screen, a picture corresponding to a target word from a foil of four rhyming alternatives. The auditory portion of the test is recorded digitally and is recalled from a clinician's computer by clicking a mouse on the English translation of the target word. Thus, an English-speaking clinician can assess reliably word recognition abilities of Russian-speaking patients-a task that has become important in view of the recent surge of immigration from the former Soviet Union. Normative performance of normal-hearing native speakers of Russian was obtained in oral response conditions and picture-pointing conditions intended for clinical use. Psychometric functions provide norms for clinical decision making. Error patterns, individual confusions, and cognitive aspects of the experiment are discussed.

Acoustic-reflex adaptation: morphology and half-life data for subjects with normal hearing.

Acoustic-reflex adaptation was studied in 35 subjects with normal hearing using nine pure-tone activators (250-6000 Hz) and a broadband-noise activator. The individual subject data generated by the 31-s activators presented 10 dB above the reflex threshold were digitized, corrected for baseline drift and ear canal volume, and analyzed in terms of the acoustic-admittance change in acoustic mmhos and in terms of the percentage of maximum-reflex magnitude. Reflex adaptation increased as a function of frequency. The adaptation functions for the lower frequencies (less than or equal to 1500 Hz) were essentially linear over the 31-s activator period, whereas the functions for the higher frequencies (greater than or equal to 2000 Hz) were curvilinear over the activator period. The experimental half-life data are compared with a theoretical half-life function that was generated to estimate normal acoustic-reflex adaptation as a function of activator frequency. Finally, the means and standard deviations are reported and discussed for (a) the onset time of adaptation, (b) the half-life time, and (c) the percentage of maximum reflex magnitude at 5-s intervals from 5 to 30 s.