Development and evaluation of the Turkish matrix sentence test

• Published in: International journal of audiology 2015-05, Vol.54 (sup2), p.51-61
• Main Authors: Zokoll, Melanie A., Fidan, Dilek, Türkyılmaz, Didem, Hochmuth, Sabine, Ergenç, İclâl, Sennaroğlu, Gonca, Kollmeier, Birger
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acoustic Stimulation; Acoustics; Adult; Auditory Threshold; Comprehension; Female; Humans; Language; Male; matrix sentence test, Turkish; Noise - adverse effects; Perceptual Masking; Predictive Value of Tests; Recognition (Psychology); Reproducibility of Results; Signal-To-Noise Ratio; signal-to-noise ratio (SNR); Sound Spectrography; Speech audiometry; Speech Intelligibility; Speech Perception; speech reception threshold (SRT); Speech Reception Threshold Test - methods; speech recognition in noise; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1499-2027; 1708-8186
• DOI: 10.3109/14992027.2015.1074735

Objectives: The Turkish matrix sentence test, TURMatrix, was developed for precise, internationally comparable speech intelligibility testing. Design: The TURMatrix comprises a base matrix of ten well-known Turkish names, numbers, adjectives, objects, verbs, from which syntactically fixed sentences were randomly composed. Test conduction may be in an open-set (standard), or closed-set response format. Homogeneity in intelligibility of the test material was optimized by applying level adaptations (maximal ± 3 dB) based on word-specific speech reception thresholds (SRTs). Test list equivalence was verified and reference values were determined. Study sample: Thirty-eight native listeners of Turkish with normal hearing. Results: After training, mean SRT and slope of the final test lists were − 8.3 ± 0.2 dB SNR and 14.1 ± 1.0%/dB, respectively (fixed SNR measurements; inter-list variability). For adaptive measurements, average across listeners was − 7.2 ± 0.7 dB SNR in the open-set and − 7.9 ± 0.7 dB SNR in the closed-set response format. Mean SRT for adaptive measurements in the open-set response format in quiet was 20.3 ± 4.1 dB. Individual SRTs in quiet correlated more closely with audiograms than with SRTs in noise. Conclusions: The TURMatrix was developed according to European standards and provides reliable speech intelligibility measurements in noise and quiet.