Development and validation of dichotic double digit test in Kannada

Abstract

ObjectiveThe main objective of the study was to develop, validate and construct norms for a double dichotic digit test in the language ‘Kannada’ in normal healthy adults, for both free and forced recall conditions. MethodThis study was carried out in 2 phases. Phase 1 involved the development of the dichotic tests and phase 2 consisted of validation, data collection and normative estimation on 70 normal right-handed adults (18–60 years) and 50 normal children (10–15 years) in both free recall and forced attention condition. ResultsThe results indicated no significant difference between scores obtained on the three separate lists, in the free recall condition (p = 0.189). There was a significant difference between the right and the left ear scores in all three lists, which indicates a right ear advantage (p = 0.001). In the forced recall condition, there was no significant difference between the right and left ear scores, across the three lists. ConclusionThe current study has provided a content-validated double dichotic digit test with normative data in Kannada. Overall the test evaluates right ear advantage with good accuracy.