HINT (Hearing In Noise test)
Here's Lotte's test result plotted in an example graph.
Understanding of sentences grows with age as understanding/vocabulary grows, hence the rising line up to 12-13 years of age. Lotte's score 14 months ago is also plotted (Age 7½ - November 2010) and last results (Age 9½ - Feb 2012) The improvement is clear. Also that she is still catching up.. Whether the gap is due to actual hearing, or understanding..r both?? The future will tell....
The official graphs look like this: (Coloured area on the right is Normal hearing adults)
Here one can see on the left how Lotte scores close to perfect without noise. (from 69% 14 months ago) and how (on the right) she improved from her 2010 results in noisy environment
In writing (Norwegian):
Translation:
Lotte was wearing bilateral CI when she was tested with one-syllable words and HINT sentenses.
One-syllable words HIST: 40 of 44 = 88%
HINT sentenses:
I silence: 98%
In noise from the front: STN= 5.7 dB with v=2,0dB and STN= 3.3dB with v= 2,0dB
In noise from right: STN= 2.2 dB with v=1.5dB
In noise from left: STN= -0.2 dB with v=2,2dB
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From the www..
The Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) measures a person’s ability to hear speech in quiet and in noise.
During the test, the patient uses both ears together (binaural hearing) to repeat sentences. Binaural hearing ability is essential for communication in noisy settings and for other aspects of functional hearing, such as sound localization and recognition of environmental sounds. In this test, the patient is required to repeat sentences both in a quiet environment and with competing noise being presented from different directions.
What is involved in taking this test?
The HINT battery consists of four test conditions. For each test, speech is located directly in front of the subject at 0° azimuth, and all sound sources are one meter from the center of the subject’s head. For each of the four conditions, the subject is required to listen to a sentence and repeat it. The four test conditions are:
(1) sentences with no competing noise,
(2) sentences with competing noise presented directly in front of the patient,
(3) noise presented at 90° to the right of the patient, and
(4) noise presented at 90° to the left of the patient.
In all conditions, the competing noise is presented at a steady loudness of 65dB(A). The loudness of the sentences presented is varied throughout the test, depending on whether the patient repeats it correctly or not.
How is the HINT test scored?
The tester scores each sentence repeated as either correct or incorrect. All words in the sentence must be repeated correctly. At the end of the test, a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is generated for each test condition. A signal-to-noise ratio equals how loud the sentences needed to be turned up above the noise floor so that the patient could repeat them correctly 50% of the time. For example, an SNR of 5dB indicates that the sentences had to be presented at 70dB (or 5dB above the 65dB noise floor) in order to be repeated correctly 50% of the time. The higher the SNR, the more difficulty the patient has hearing in noise. The HINT test is scored as a “pass” or “fail” in each condition and the cut-off criteria are based on the scores from a group of more than 50 subjects with normal hearing. These scores were provided by House Ear Institute who developed the HINT test. HINT test results show three things:
Subject’s signal to noise ratio threshold (e.g. 5dB)
Subject’s threshold as a percentile in reference to the normal distribution of the data (e.g. 95th %ile)
Subject’s maximum percent change in intelligibility. This is the predicted maximum difference in intelligibility in reference to the mean normal performance (e.g. the subject’s predicted intelligibility is 23% poorer than normal hearing intelligibility)
