Development of the Mandarin Nonsense Word Identification Test

Abstract

Objective

This study aimed to develop a digitised Mandarin Nonsense Word Speech Perception Test for use in Malaysia, a multilingual country in Southeast Asia.

Design

In Phase I, 400 vowel-consonant-vowel (VCV) nonsense word samples containing 20 Mandarin consonants in /a/, /i/, or /u/ contexts were recorded from two speakers of different genders. Acoustic analyses, sound quality ratings, and item validations were used to guide selection of items to form two gender-specific test lists. In Phase II, performance-intensity functions and test-retest reliability for the lists were established.

Study sample

Native Mandarin-speaking adults with normal hearing participated in Phase I (n = 10) and Phase II (n = 69).

Results

Eighty-four of the 400 VCV words were selected to form two gender-specific test lists. A two-way repeated measure ANOVA revealed a significant interaction effect between speaker-gender and presentation level [F (4.88, 283.20) = 22.79, p < 0.001, η_p²= 0.28]. Intraclass correlation scores of 0.75 and 0.87 were obtained for the female-speaker and male-speaker lists respectively.

Conclusions

The preliminary normative data of the Mandarin nonsense word test have been developed. It is recommended to use separate gender-specific norms when conducting the test. The test has good validity and reliability for testing Mandarin-speaking adults in Malaysia.

Keywords:

• Mandarin
• nonsense word identification
• performance-intensity function
• acoustic analysis
• gender-differences

Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely thank all participants who took part in this research. The assistance of Miss Elizabeth Lim Shu Jun (graduate research assistance), Mrs. Nur Izzati Md. Yusoff (clinician), and Mrs. Amalina Syazana Adnan (science officer) is also greatly appreciated.

Declaration of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The present study was funded by the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysian Geran Galakan Penyelidik Muda [GGPM-2017-053], awarded to the corresponding author.