Development and preliminary evaluation of a novel adaptive staircase procedure for automated speech-in-noise testing

This article introduces a novel automated staircase procedure for a speech-in-noise test based on Vowel-Consonant-Vowel (VCV) stimuli. Conventional staircase procedures are based on pre-determined changes in stimulus presentation levels under the assumption of homogeneous set. The proposed staircase takes into account differences in intelligibility across the set by using changes in stimulus presentation levels that vary depending on the stimulus and the presentation level. Preliminary evaluation of the proposed staircase, as compared to a conventional staircase, demonstrated test-retest reliability, agreement with the conventional method in terms of speech-in-noise threshold estimation, and lower test duration. As such, the proposed approach shows promise for the implementation of rapid and reliable speech-in-noise tests in adults. Further research is needed to assess test performance in a larger sample of participants, also including subjects of various mother tongue and subjects with hearing loss.