Abstract
The use of contextual information for the recognition of subsequent words may be considered as a central auditory process. In the present study, preliminary test forms of a German version of the American SPIN test were evaluated. The test materials consisted of short sentences with a contextual part and a final word that was always a monosyllabic noun. The contribution of context to the recognition of “high predictable” (HP) and “low predictable” (LP) final words of these sentences was investigated. Testing was performed in noise. However, the masking noise was time-weighted such that the masking level was higher for the final word than for the preceding contextual portion of the sentence. At scores of 29.3%, 50% and 70.7% correct, the mean difference in S/N ratio between HP and LP items was approximately 5, 5 and 2.5 dB, respectively. Equal performance for HP and LP items would indicate central auditory dysfunction. Possible diagnostic applications are discussed.