A comparison between the Dutch and American-English digits-in-noise (DIN) tests in normal-hearing listeners

Abstract

Objective: The Dutch digits-in-noise test (NL DIN) and the American-English version (US DIN) are speech-in-noise tests for diagnostic and clinical usage. The present study investigated differences between NL DIN and US DIN speech reception thresholds (SRTs) for a group of native Dutch-speaking listeners.

Design: In experiment 1, a repeated-measures design was used to compare SRTs for the NL DIN and US DIN in steady-state noise and interrupted noise for monaural, diotic, and dichotic listening conditions. In experiment 2, a subset of these conditions with additional speech material (i.e. US DIN triplets without inter-digit coarticulation/prosody) was used.

Study sample: Experiment 1 was conducted with 16 normal-hearing Dutch students. Experiment 2 was conducted with nine different students.

Results: No significant differences between SRTs measured with the NL DIN and US DIN were found in steady-state noise. In interrupted noise the US DIN SRTs were significantly better in monaural and diotic listening conditions. Experiment 2 demonstrated that these better SRTs cannot be explained by the combined effect of inter-digit coarticulation and prosody in the American-English triplets.

Conclusions: The NL DIN and US DIN are highly comparable and valuable tests for measuring auditory speech recognition abilities. These tests promote across-language comparisons of results.

Keywords: Speech in noise; coarticulation; dichotic; digits; diotic; interrupted noise; triplets.