Reliability of a set of Mandarin phonemic-balanced short-item monosyllable lists with equivalency in audibility
Dongyi Han · Chinese Journal of Otology · 2008
Objective To evaluate the reliability of Mandarin phonemic-balanced monosyllabic lists. Methods Thirty Mandarin phonemic-balanced monosyllabic lists (25 syllables in each list) were digitally recorded with monosyllabic items normalized. Two-way(intensity and list number) repeated measures was adapted as experimental design. Sixty normal-hearing young adults were recruited to repeat as many syllables which they heard as possible. Syllablc lists were counterbalanced across six intensities(5, 11, 17, 21, 27, 33 dB SPL) and across participants. Recognition scores in individual intensities for each list were calculated in order to analyze list equivalence via MANOVA. Results The scores of twenty-two equivalent lists was transformed intoRationalized arcsine unit (RAU), then the standard deviation of RAU were pooled across participants, intensities and lists as an index of grand reliability. The value of 7.6% represents the score variability due to a combination of differences in true list difficulty and random measurement error within a subject. The critical difference which must be exceeded for a difference between two scores based on single lists to be significant at the 95% confidence level is 21.2%. Conclusion The set of 22 Mandarin phonemic-balanced monosyllable lists can be accepted in view of short and reliable requirement in clinical practice.