INFLUENCE OF CONTEXT ON SPEECH UNDERSTANDING ABILITY USING GERMAN SENTENCE TEST MATERIALS

The use of contextual information for the recognition of subsequent wo rds may be considered as a central auditory process. In the present st udy, preliminary test forms of a German version of the American SPIN t est were evaluated. The test materials consisted of short sentences wi th a contextual part and a final word that was always a monosyllabic n oun. The contribution of context to the recognition of ''high predicta ble'' (HP) and ''low predictable'' (LP) final words of these sentences was investigated. Testing was performed in noise. However, the maskin g noise was time-weighted such that the masking level was higher for t he final word than for the preceding contextual portion of the sentenc e. At scores of 29.3%, 50% and 70.7% correct, the mean difference in S /N ratio between HP and LP items was approximately 5, 5 and 2.5 dB, re spectively. Equal performance for HP and LP items would indicate centr al auditory dysfunction. Possible diagnostic applications are discusse d.