Development of the computerized Mandarin Pediatric Lexical Tone and Disyllabic-word Picture Identification Test in Noise (MAPPID-N)

Abstract

MAPPID‐N was developed to assess the speech‐recognition abilities in noise of Mandarin‐speaking children on disyllabic words, and lexical tones in monosyllabic words, in a picture‐identification test format. Twenty‐six normal‐hearing children aged four to nine years listened repeatedly to the test materials where noise was spatially mixed with or separated from speech, in different signal‐to‐noise (SNR) ratios, to obtain performance‐SNR functions and SNR for 50% correct scores (SNR‐50%). SNR‐50% improved with age only when noise was spatially separated from speech but not when noise was mixed with speech, suggesting the improvement with age in the use of intensity and timing cues differences between the two ears. The homogeneity of the test items was improved by adjusting the intensity levels of individual test items to align their SNR‐50% to the mean SNR‐50% level. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Development and validation of a new Mandarin tone identification test

“…To date, there are three existing tone perception test materials: (1) the Mandarin early speech perception test (MESP) [18], (2) the Mandarin pediatric lexical tone and disyllabic-word picture identification test in noise (MAPPID-N) [20], and (3) the set of standard and method for evaluation of hearing-impaired children's hearing and speech ability [21]. However, these test materials have some limitations.…”

“…First, vocabulary within the daily repertoire of children aged 7 or above was selected. Second, words that are familiar to young children [20,24] were used, because previous study showed that the error rate in tone perception test is closely related to the familiarity of the words [25]. Third, monosyllables were used because they are very common in Chinese.…”

“…Colored illustrations have been found to successfully solicit responses from children as young as 30-35 months of age and therefore were adopted in this test [18,20,21,29]. A four-item forced choice tone identification test was used.…”

“…Though no difference was found in tone perception using males or females voice [20], a male speaker was used in the present study because a male voice tends to exhibit lower fundamental frequencies than a female voice [34], and thus allowing better reception by children with profound HI [35].…”

“…As recorded materials could be used with children as young as four years of age [14,20,31], they were adopted for the testing of the children (aged seven years or above) targeted for this study. Recorded materials also offer the advantage of better control of the level of presentation and speaker characteristics (e.g., gender, accent, speech rate) [32].…”