BAND IMPORTANCE FUNCTIONS FOR AUDIOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS

Recently, band importance functions have been developed for a number o f speech tests used in audiology. These functions, as well as the impo rtance functions for average (everyday) speech, are also being conside red for the inclusion in the revised Articulation Index standard (subm itted for vote to the Acoustical Society of America). In this paper, t he band importance functions for different speech materials (usually r eported in literature for 1/3 octave bands) have been recalculated to correspond to frequency bands normally used in audiological applicatio ns. In addition, criteria for selecting appropriate importance functio ns and transfer functions are discussed.