Brief-Tone Audiometry with Normal and Deaf School-Age Children

Abstract

Ten normal children and 10 deaf children with cochlear losses were tested on a brief-tone audiometric task at 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz using a modified method of limits. The normal children yielded similar values of temporal integration at all test frequencies, and the results approached closely the theoretical values anticipated on the basis of Zwislocki’s theory. With the exception of the data obtained at 500 Hz, the mean values of temporal integration associated with the deaf group were only about one-third the magnitude of those yielded by their normal counterparts. The results conformed neatly to what is considered to be typical of the performance of a group of individuals exhibiting cochlear pathology. There was little or no overlap between the distributions of the individual values of temporal integration recorded for the normal and the deaf groups. A possible future application of brief-tone audiometry is suggested.