Development of a rapid automated binaural detection task

Three different automated procedures for efficiently measuring the 500 Hz N₀S_π binaural tone detection threshold of individuals with normal audiometric thresholds were tested with 6803 subjects and the results are compared with an automated version of an existing clinical procedure. Two of these procedures resulted in substantially reduced binaural detection performance and caused a notable decrease in the reliability of the behavior of the subjects. The remaining procedure was an 18-trial yes/no procedure and the difficulty of the trials in this procedure varied in a non-monotonic manner. This procedure not only has fewer trials than the existing clinical procedure but the reliability of the estimate of threshold is improved. The average difference in threshold between this procedure and the clinical procedure was only −0.67 dB, which is likely not clinically significant. Further, only 0.35% of the 6208 subjects tested with the non-monotonic-order procedure were unable to complete the fully automated test which was better than the failure rate for the automated version of the clinical procedure. With such a low failure rate, the modified procedure appears suitable for use as a rapid tool for helping to detect functional hearing deficits that are not captured by the audiogram.