Dichotic Sentences Test Performance of Adults with communication complaints.
Geise Corrêa Ferreira, Eliane Schochat, Katya Marcondes Freire and 1 others
PMID 37556702WHAT IT FOUND
Normal-hearing adults with communication complaints scored far below expected levels on the Dichotic Sentences Test, especially when listening to two speakers at once.
This test may help identify auditory processing issues that standard hearing checks miss.
Key findings
01Participants showed a marked right-ear advantage in the divided attention step, with scores differing by up to 60% between ears.
02Performance was significantly worse in the left ear (60.67%) compared to the right ear (84.67%) during the divided attention step.
03The test showed poor repeatability, with large variations in scores between the first and second application sequences for the left ear.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The sample size was very small (15 people), limiting how much these findings can be generalized. The study only included right-handed individuals with normal hearing and no neurological issues, so it does not apply to the broader patient population. There was no direct control group in this study; comparisons were made against data from previous studies. The test showed poor repeatability, meaning scores changed significantly between the first and second attempts on the same day.
Declared interests
Funded by CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior). No commercial conflicts declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use the Dichotic Sentences Test as a standalone diagnostic tool. The large variability between the first and second test sessions suggests that a single poor score might reflect fatigue, learning effects, or attention fluctuations rather than a permanent auditory processing deficit.