On the Feasibility of Using Behavioral Listening Effort Test Methods to Evaluate Auditory Performance in Cochlear Implant Users.
Maartje M E Hendrikse, Gertjan Dingemanse, André Goedegebure
PMID 38676325WHAT IT FOUND
Listening effort tests detected group differences but failed to distinguish individual changes from normal test variability.
Standard speech intelligibility tests were more reliable for identifying the best cochlear implant setting for a specific patient.
Key findings
01Behavioral tests detected listening effort differences across the group but could not reliably distinguish these effects from normal test-retest variability within individuals.
02Standard speech intelligibility measures were more sensitive to signal-to-noise changes than listening effort measures, making them better suited for individual clinical decision-making.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study included only 18 participants, which limits the precision of the test-retest variability estimates. The learning effect observed in the sentence verification task could not be fully corrected, potentially affecting the reliability estimates. The results apply specifically to the implementations of these tests used in the study; other versions might perform differently. The study tested differences caused by noise levels, which may not perfectly mirror the effort differences caused by changing hearing device algorithms.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest. The work was supported by the European Commission.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume these tests are useless because they failed at the individual level. They successfully detected listening effort differences at the group level and are appropriate for research, but they currently lack the reliability needed for clinical programming of cochlear implants.