Performance of older normal-hearing listeners on the tracking of noise tolerance (TNT) test

Abstract

Objective To gather preliminary reference data on older normal-hearing (NH) adults for the refined Tracking of Noise Tolerance (TNT) test. Design Within-subject repeated measures. Participants were tested on the TNT in the sound-field and under headphones. In the sound-field, speech stimuli were presented at 75 dB SPL and 82 dB SPL from 0° with a speech-shaped noise presented either from 0° or 180° at a level controlled by the participants. The order of signal level, mode of presentation, noise azimuth, and TNT passages were counterbalanced across listeners. Testing was repeated for one condition after 1–3 weeks to estimate within-session and between-session reliability. Study sample Twenty-five NH listeners (51–82 yrs of age). Results Mean TNT scores (TNTAve) were about 4 dB at a speech input of 75 dB SPL and 3 dB at 82 dB SPL. The TNTAve was similar between the headphone and sound-field presentations in the co-located noise. TNTAve scores measured with noise-back were about 1 dB better than those measured from the front. The 95% confidence intervals of absolute test-retest differences were about 1.2 dB within-session and 2.0 dB between sessions. Conclusions The refined TNT may be a reliable tool to measure noise acceptance and subjective speech intelligibility.