Test–retest reliability of Kannada time-compressed speech test and time-compressed monosyllables test

Abstract

Objective: The study attempts to determine the test–retest reliability for time-compressed phonemically balanced (PB) words in Kannada and monosyllables across different compression ratios.

Study design: The study was carried out on 30 normal hearing individuals, 15 males and 15 females. The PB words were time-compressed at 50%, 60% and 70% compression ratios and monosyllables were time-compressed at 50%, 60%, 70% and 80% compression ratios. The compressed material was administered three times (baseline, after 15 min break and after 1 week) at all the compression ratios for PB words and monosyllables.

Results: The results of the study show that scores were higher for monosyllables at high compression ratios. The scores were more reliable at 60% compression ratio for both monosyllables and PB words. The study also shows that the reliability of the test does not vary across gender.

Conclusion: The study recommends using 60% compression ratio for PB words and monosyllables while testing a clinical population.

Keywords:

• Compression ratio
• gender
• monosyllables
• phonemically balanced words
• time compressed speech

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge with gratitude Prof. Savithri S.R., Director, All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, Mysore for permitting to conduct the study at the institute. The authors also like to acknowledge the participants for their co-operation.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.