| Issue |
Acta Acust.
Volume 9, 2025
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 47 | |
| Number of page(s) | 11 | |
| Section | Hearing, Audiology and Psychoacoustics | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/aacus/2025032 | |
| Published online | 24 July 2025 | |
Scientific Article
Digits-in-Noise test implementations for onsite and online testing with normal-hearing adults
1
Department of Otorhinolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen Hanzeplein 1 9713GZ Groningen Netherlands
2
Research School of Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Groningen Groningen Netherlands
3
W.J. Kolff Institute for Biomedical Engineering and Materials Science, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen Groningen Netherlands
4
CNRS UMR 5292, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, Auditory Cognition and Psychoacoustics, Inserm UMRS 1028, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Université de Lyon Lyon France
* Corresponding author: s.turudu@rug.nl
Received:
8
October
2024
Accepted:
30
June
2025
Introduction: To investigate the effects of frequently used variations of the Digits-in-Noise (DIN) test on speech reception threshold (SRT) for onsite and online implementations.
Methods: We tested various DIN test implementations in a within-subject design on 30 normal-hearing adults onsite, with 22 of them also online. We varied three parameters: (1) sound presentation, diotic or antiphasic; (2) starting signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), 0 or −16 dB; and (3) mixing method, with fixed presentation level of the speech, the noise, or the speech and noise mix (tested onsite only).
Results: Antiphasic presentation yielded significantly lower DIN SRTs than diotic by around 6 dB. The effects of starting SNR and mixing method were significant but small, around 1−2 dB. These effects seemed more pronounced with antiphasic presentation. Overall, onsite and online DIN test results were comparable, with the largest observed difference being 1.30 dB.
Conclusion: The selection of diotic or antiphasic sound presentation seems important, and antiphasic presentation may result in a more sensitive test. In contrast, the effects of the other parameters were small. The comparable onsite and online outcomes indicate that online testing via the internet could be a viable option for making the DIN test available to large populations.
Key words: Digits-in-Noise test / Speech reception threshold / Speech audiometry / Hearing screening test
© The Author(s), Published by EDP Sciences, 2025
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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