Objective To develop and evaluate the equivalence of the Mandarin test material for tracking of noise tolerance(TNT)test.Methods Six different speech materials were developed(themes including daily life,entertainment,family,festivals,outdoors,and school).Four-minute TNT tests were measured in 21 normal hear-ing subjects using six different test materials.For each session,the tolerable noise level(TNL)and TNT scores were acquired and calculated for 3 time windows(31~240 s,31~120 s,151~240 s).Results Statistic analysis showed significant differences in the TNL(F=43.611,P<0.05)among the normal hearing listeners.There were statistically significant differences in standardize z-scored TNT scores of the six different materials in the three time windows(P<0.05).Post-hoc comparisons revealed that all significant differences involved the family and daily life themes.Conclusion Entertainment,festival,outdoors and school themed test materials can serve as the materials of Mandarin tracking of noise tolerance test and can be appied in research and clinical testing.
Tracking of noise tolerance(TNT)testAcceptable noise levelSpeech discrimination testEquivalence