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Abstract
Objective
The “Marginal benefit from acoustic amplification” version 2 (MBAA2) sentence test has been used in France in the routine evaluation of cochlear implant (CI) users for 20 years. Here we present four studies that characterise and validate the test, and compare it with the French matrix sentence test.
Design and sample
An analytic method was developed to obtain speech recognition threshold in noise (SNR50) from testing at a fixed signal to noise ratios (SNRs). Speech recognition was measured at several fixed SNRs in 18 normal-hearing listeners and 15 CI listeners. Then, the test–retest reliability of the MBAA2 was measured in an additional 15 CI listeners. Finally, list equivalence was evaluated in eight CI listeners.
Results
The MBAA2 test produced lower SNR50s and SNR50s were obtained in more CI listeners than with the French matrix test. For the MBAA2, the standard deviation of test–retest differences in CI listeners was around 1 dB SNR. Three lists had deviant difficulty and nine low item-to-total correlations.
Conclusions
We propose to reduce the number of MBAA2 test lists to reduce variability. The MBAA2 test has high test–retest reliability for percent correct and SNR50, and is suitable for the assessment of cochlear implant patients.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank master’s students Alice Lamy, Maria Perrault, and Audrey Georges for collecting some of the data as part of their dissertations. The MBAA test material is freely available at https://tinyurl.com/y2dsp7vu. We thank Marielle Bazo, Cochlear France, for providing this web page. Portions of this work were previously presented at conferences, including the Workshop on Speech in Noise, Glasgow, January 2018; and the Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Minneapolis, May 2018.
Author contributions
C.J., C.K., C.N., M-L.L., and M.M. designed the material and studies and drafted the report. C.J. and C.K. analyzed the data. M-L.L, C.A., C.N., and M.T. managed CI patients, and supervised data collection by master’s students. O.D. and B.F. approved the manuscript.
Disclosure statement
There are no relevant financial or non-financial competing interests to report.