TABLE OF CONTENTS

¹ Spondaic words, Maryland CNC lists, NU No. 6 CNC lists, PBK lists & WIPI lists reproduced compliments of G. Donald Causey, Ph.D., Consultant in Audiology, VA Medical Center, Washington, D.C.

² NU No. 6 by difficulty was reproduced compliments of William Carver, Ph.D., Auditec of St. Louis.

³ Spanish Word Recognition lists compliments of June McCullough, Ph.D., San Jose State University .

⁴ Sounds of Life, reproduced compliments of Starkey Laboratories, Inc.

The text that follows describes briefly the materials that are contained on each track of the compact disc. A detailed script of each track and selected references are provided. Several characteristics of the recordings should be noted. With the majority of the 50 item word lists recorded on this compact disc, words 1-25 are recorded on one track and words 26-50 are recorded on the subsequent track.

Track 1. Both channels contain a 300-ms, 1000-Hz tone burst, followed sequentially by a 1-s silent interval and a 30-s, 1000-Hz calibration tone that reflects the peaks of the speech materials as monitored on a calibrated vu meter (Green, Williams, & Kryter, 1959; Lilly, 1967). The 300-ms tone burst can be used to check the ballistic characteristics of a VU meter. The needle on a calibrated VU meter will swing from -20 vu to 0 vu with minimal overshoot when a 300-ms tone burst is placed across the meter. It should be noted that many meters used on audiometers are not "true" VU meters and/or are not properly calibrated (ANSI, 1954). The 1000-Hz calibration tone may not reflect accurately the peaks of the speech materials on non-VU meters and on non-calibrated VU meters.
Track 2. The left (A) and right (B) channels contain two randomizations of the 36 CID W-1 spondaic words spoken by a female with 4-s inter-stimulus intervals. The left channel contains the spondaic words referenced to the 1000-Hz calibration tone. Normative data for these materials are given in Cambron, Wilson, and Shanks (1991). The right channel contains the spondaic words referenced to equal intelligibility (Wilson and Strouse, 1999). Total time is 291 s.
Tracks 3 and 4. The left channel contains List 1 of the Maryland CNC materials recorded by a male (Causey, Hood, Hermanson, & Bowling, 1984); Track 3 has words 1-25 and Track 4 has words 26-50. The right channel contains a copy of the Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6 (Auditec male speaker) ordered by difficulty (Fabry, 1990) with 25 words/list. Track 3 has List 1 and Track 4 has List 2. Both channels have 4.2-s inter-stimulus intervals; the total time/track is 109 s.
Tracks 5 and 6. The left channel has List 3 of the Maryland CNC words; the right channel has Lists 3 and 4 of the Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6 ordered by difficulty. The ISI is 4.2 s with 109 s/track.
Tracks 7 and 8. The left channel has List 6 of the Maryland CNC words; the right channel has List 5 and 6 of the Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6 ordered by difficulty. The ISI is 4.2 s with 109 s/track.
Tracks 9 and 10. The left channel has List 7 of the Maryland CNC words; the right channel of Track 9 has List 7 of the Northwestern University Auditory Test No 6 ordered by difficulty. The ISI is 4.2 s with 110 and 113 s/track. The right channel of Track 10 has the Fruit Tree passage spoken by a female.
Tracks 11 and 12. The left channel has List 9 of the Maryland CNC words. The ISI is 4.2 s with 114 and 113 s/track. The right channel of Track 11 has the Fingers passage spoken by a female, whereas the right channel of Track 12 has the Little Girl passage spoken by a female.
Tracks 13 and 14. The left channel has List 1A of the Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6 recorded by a female; the right channel has competing sentences [modified Bell Telephone Sentences (Fletcher & Steinberg, 1929)] recorded by a male. The original normative data for these materials in quiet, in broadband noise, and in the competing message (ipsilateral) are given in Wilson, Zizz, Shanks, and Causey (1990) with more recent data given in Stoppenbach, Craig, Wiley, and Wilson (1999). The ISI is 4.6 s with 116 (Track 15) and 119 (Track 16) s/track
Tracks 15 and 16. The left channel has List 2A of Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6; the right channel has the competing sentences. The ISI is 4.6 s with 118 and 116 s/track.
Tracks 17 and 18. The left channel has List 3A of Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6; the right channel has the competing sentences. The ISI is 4.6 s with 117 s/track.
Tracks 19 and 20. The left channel has List 4A of Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6; the right channel has the competing sentences. The ISI is 4.6 s with 118 and 117 s/track.
Track 21. The SPeech Recognition In Noise Test (SPRINT) that is the Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6 materials spoken by the Auditec male speaker mixed in a background of multi-talker babble. The left channel contains List 1C, words 1-50 whereas the right channel contains List 2C, words 1-50. The track time is 287s.
Track 22. The SPeech Recognition In Noise Test (SPRINT) that is the Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6 materials spoken by the Auditec male speaker mixed in a background of multi-talker babble. The left channel contains List 3C, words 1-50 whereas the right channel contains List 4C, words 1-50. The track time is 285s.
Tracks 23 and 24. The Spanish Picture Identification materials recorded by a female speaker in a recognition paradigm [carrier phrase "diga usted" ("say")] are on these tracks (McCullough & Wilson, 1999). List 1 is on the left channel and List 2 is on the right channel. Track 23 has words 1-25 and Track 24 has words 26-50. The ISI is 4 s with 141 and 139 s/track.
Track 25. Sounds of Life, Speech and Noise. The left channel has a male voice with machinery noise and the right channel has a female voice with machinery noise. The track is 101 s.
Track 26. Sounds of Life, Speech and Noise. The left channel has a male voice with cafeteria noise and the right channel has a female voice with cafeteria noise. The track is 101 s.
Track 27. Sounds of Life, Environmental Sounds. The left channel has street construction and a garbage truck and the right channel has freeway traffic. The track is 101 s.
Track 28. Sounds of Life, Environmental Sounds. The left channel has a dot matrix computer printer and the right channel has a blacksmith shop. The track is 102 s.
Track 29. Sounds of Life, Reverberation. The left channel has a male speaker in reverberation and the right channel has a female speaker in reverberation. The track is 101 s.
Tracks 30 and 31. The left channel contains List 1 of the Phonetically Balanced Kindergarten (PBK) lists (Haskins, 1949) materials recorded by the VA female speaker. The right channel contains List 2 of the PBKs. Track 30 has words 1-25 and Track 31 has words 26-50. Both channels have 4.5-s inter-stimulus intervals; the time/track is 144 s.
Tracks 32 and 33. The left channels contain Lists 1 and 2 of the Word Intelligibility by Picture Identification (WIPI) (Ross & Learman, 1970) a male speaker. The right channel contains Lists 3 and 4 of the WIPI. Both channels have 5-s inter-stimulus intervals; the time/track is 144 s.

American National Standards Institute. (1954). Volume Measurements of Electrical Speech and Program Waves. ANSI C16.5-1954. New York : American National Standards Institute.

Cambron, N. K. , Wilson , R. H., & Shanks, J. E. (1991). Spondaic Word Detection and Recognition Functions for Female And Male Speakers. Ear and Hearing. 12:64-70.

Causey, G. D., Hood, L. J., Hermanson, C. L., & Bowling, L. S. (1984). The Maryland CNC Test: Normative Studies. Audiology. 23:552-568.

Fabry, D.A. (1990). Development and Validation of Abbreviated NU-6 Word Lists for Use With Patients Who Have Noise-Induced Hearing Loss. Paper presented at the 32nd Navy Occupational Health and Preventative Medicine Workshop, Virginia Beach, VA.

Fletcher, H., & Steinberg, J. C. (1929). Articulation Testing Methods. Bell System Technical Journal.  8:806-854.

Green, D. M., Williams, C., & Kryter, K. D. (1959). Peak VU Deflection And Energy For Monosyllabic Words. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America . 31:1264-1265.

Haskins, H. A. (1949). A Phonetically Balanced Test Of Speech Discrimination In Children Master’s thesis, Northwestern University , Evanston , Illinois .

Lilly, D. J. (1967). Calibration Of Electroacoustic Apparatus: Disc Reproduction Systems. Asha. 9:367.

McCullough, J. A., & Wilson, R. H. (1999). Performance On A Spanish Picture-Identification Task Using A Multimedia Format. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology. (under review).

Ross, M., & Lerman, J. (1970). A Picture Identification Test For Hearing-Impaired Children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research. 13:44-53.

Sperry, J. L.., Wiley, T. L., & Chial, M. R. (1997). Word Recognition Performance In Various Background Competitors. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology. 8:71-80.

Stoppenbach, D. T., Craig, J. M., Wiley, T. L., and Wilson, R. H. (1999). Word Recognition Performance For Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6 Word Lists In Quiet And In Competing Message. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology. 10:429-435.

Wilson, R. H., & Strouse, A. L. (1999). Psychometrically Equivalent Spondaic Words Spoken by a Female Speaker. Journal Speech Language and Hearing Research (in press ).

Wilson, R. H. , Zizz, C. A. , Shanks, J. E. , & Causey, G. D. (1990). Normative Data In Quiet, Broadband Noise, and Competing Message For Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6 by a Female Speaker. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders. 55:771-778.