Speech-in-competition auditory assessment and the influence of the bilingual experience

Abstract

The measurement of audition has historically focused on the detection of pure tones; however, it has been proposed that a thorough evaluation should include measures of language reception in competition. The auditory challenge in the real world occurs mostly in competitive environments that require further auditory processing, and not only rely on peripheral, but also higher-order processes. Nevertheless, innovation of speech in competition assessments has occurred primarily in English and few tools have been translated, validated, and investigated in Spanish. Likewise, the bilingual experience of subjects whose native language is not English has not been sufficiently considered when using speech audiometry in hearing evaluation, casting doubt on assessment validity. In this study, we collected repeated measures of the digits-in-noise and the spatial release from masking tasks in English and Spanish-languages on a sample of fifty-six healthy Mexican subjects with varying degrees of English experience. We found significant differences across two sessions in the spatial release from masking, but not the digits-in-noise test. Additionally, we observed that a participant's bilingual experiences, but not cognitive ability, were predictive of language-related differences in performance. We finish by discussing bilingual requisites for valid and reliable speech-in-competition assessment in linguistically diverse individuals.