Faculty Publications

Diplacusis Associated With Bilateral High Frequency Hearing Loss

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Journal of Speech and Hearing Research

Volume

18

Issue

1

First Page

5

Last Page

16

Abstract

Seven normal hearing subjects and 7 subjects with mild bilateral high frequency sensorineural hearing losses were studied to explore the presence of diplacusis. A tracking procedure of psychophysical method of adjustment limits was used for pitch judgments rather than the traditional method of adjustment. Each subject was presented with a standard 4000 Hz tone for 500 msec and alternately a variable tone for 500 msec. Subjects were instructed to adjust the variable tone upward or downward in pitch to bracket the pitch sensation of the standard tone. Two intra aural and 2 interaural listening conditions were studied. A graphic representation of subjects' adjustments of the variable tone was obtained for each condition. The resulting tracing indicated frequency correlates to the pitch adjustments from which excursion width and constant error were calculated. Some hard of hearing subjects and one normal hearing subject were found to have diplacusis. Subjects with hearing losses exhibited larger excursion widths for intra and interaural listening conditions. Subjects with hearing losses tended to be less consistent in pitch judgments than normal hearing subjects. These findings were interpreted to mean that bilaterally symmetrical hearing losses increase the incidence of pitch aberrations.

Department

Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology

Original Publication Date

1-1-1975

DOI of published version

10.1044/jshr.1801.05

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