Döring test

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The Döring test is an audiometric method of ear, nose and throat medicine, with which the binaural (two-eared) speech understanding is examined in the background noise . The test is a free-field audiometry , so the test material is not offered via headphones , but via loudspeakers in a suitable room. The test was developed by the German audiologist Wolfgang H. Döring and is named after him. Döring himself described the test as a "'three-silver test' with noise".

In everyday life, understanding language is more or less difficult because of the constant background noise. The strongest masking effect has interference noises, which are very similar to useful sound, i.e. primarily through noise that is generated by a large number of people speaking. Under Störschallbedingungen resulting in normal hearing binaural hearing against the monaural listening to a considerable gain in speech intelligibility.

In the Döring test, the monosyllabic list of the Freiburg language comprehension test is used as test material ; however, each word is repeated three times to draw attention to the test word in the background noise. A digitally echoed jumble of words consisting of 32-fold time-shifted superimpositions of the monosyllabic words of the Freiburg language test without pauses is used as speech-masking noise ("Döring noise"). The test examines which speech level is necessary for 50 percent intelligibility of the monosyllabic words at a given noise level (usually 65  dB ). The direction from which background noise and useful noise are offered is varied. The initial value is recorded in the situation in which both background noise and useful noise are directed at the test person from the front or rear from the same direction. In comparison, binaural hearing has the greatest interference-freeing effect when the sound sources are spatially separated and enclose an angle of approx. 90 degrees, i.e. when the two loudspeakers are positioned 45 degrees to the right and left in front of the test subject. In this position, a 50 percent monosyllable understanding is achieved at 10–12 dB lower sound levels than when both sound sources are positioned in the same direction.

The Döring test has found widespread use in the assessment of a two-ear hearing aid fitting compared to a one-sided fitting. The test is used in a slightly modified form. The interfering sound is offered to the subject from behind, the speech sound from the front and the monosyllabic understanding (cf. monosyllabic ) is determined first with only one hearing aid (on the better ear) and then with two hearing aids. In this way, the “binaural gain in intelligibility” can be determined as evidence of the effectiveness of a two-ear hearing aid fitting compared to a one-ear fitting.

literature

  • Wolfgang H. Döring, Volkmar Hamacher: New speech intelligibility tests in the clinic: Aachen log atom test and "three-silver test" with noise . In: Birger Kollmeier (Ed.): Modern methods of speech audiometry . Median-Verlag von Killisch-Horn, 1992, ISBN 3-922766-15-3 , p. 137-168 .
  • Ernst Lehnhardt , Roland Laszig (ed.): Practice of Audiometry . 8th edition. Thieme, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-13-369008-6 .