Development of the Slovenian DIN test using the fully automatic Aladdin procedure

Objective: To develop the Slovenian DIN test using synthetic speech and digit-equalisation via an automatic speech recognition system, and to evaluate the test. Design: The Aladdin procedure was used to develop the Slovenian DIN. A repeated measures design was used to measure speech recognition thresholds (SRTs) with three antiphasic DIN tests and two diotic DIN tests. Study Sample: Twenty-eight listeners with normal hearing and 62 listeners with hearing loss. Results: There was a learning effect for the initial test but no further improvement in SRT with subsequent tests. The standard error of measurement (SEM) for listeners with normal hearing was 0.9 and 0.7 dB for the antiphasic and diotic DIN tests, respectively. Hearing screening characteristics were excellent. Conclusions: The newly developed Slovenian DIN test has high precision, expressed by a small SEM, and stimulates the implementation in clinical practice. It can also be used for hearing screening with associated cut-off values.