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Abstract
The auditory-vocal reaction-times of 2 groups of children in the age range 8–14 years, closely matched for age, sex, general intelligence and socio-economic status were measured at auditory threashold and 30 dB above threshold. Children in the test group had conductive hearing loss and those in the control group normal hearing. (1) In both groups sound was perceived faster when delivered at 30 dB above auditory threshold. In the normal hearing group, 60% of the shortening of reaction time could be accounted for by the puretone signal rise time (200 msec) which was constant (being entirely dependent on the physical characteristics of the instrument and therefore non-physiological). However, in the group with conductive hearing loss, a 30-dB increase in intensity appeared to effect a statistically significant shortening of the physiological audiotory-vocal reaction time and this was considered to be due to improved conduction through the ossicular chain. (2) An increase in intensity of an auditory stimulus to 30 dB above auditory threshold virtually eliminated any difference in auditory-vocal reaction time responses between the 2 groups. This finding raises the importance of amplification in the teaching of children with even moderate degrees of conductive hearing loss. (3) If, as the findings of the study suggest, a reciprocal relationship exists between intensity of a sound and its speed of perception, it is possible that a child with a moderate degree of conductive hearing loss could perceive the loudest phonetic units of speech before the quieter ones – even though they were spoken in reverse order thereby suffering ‘auditory dyslexia', possibly analogous to the visuospatial inversions experienced by a child with a specific reading disability. (4) The discovery of a relationship between threshold of hearing and auditory-vocal reaction response time may have important applications in the determination of true auditory threshold.