# Development of New Open-Set Speech Material for Use in Clinical Audiology with Speakers of British English

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a new speech test for British English speakers to assess hearing and hearing devices, evaluating its reliability and performance.

## Contribution

The study introduces revised COPT lists with reduced difficulty variability and evaluates their reliability and practice effects.

## Key findings

- No practice effects were observed after a single practice list.
- The critical difference between scores for two lists was about 2 words or 5 phonemes.
- The mean estimated SNR required for 74% words correct was −0.56 dB with low variability.

## Abstract

Background: The Chear open-set performance test (COPT), which uses a carrier phrase followed by a monosyllabic test word, is intended for clinical assessment of speech recognition, evaluation of hearing-device performance, and the fine-tuning of hearing devices for speakers of British English. This paper assesses practice effects, test–retest reliability, and the variability across lists of the COPT. Method: In experiment 1, 16 normal-hearing participants were tested using an initial version of the COPT, at three speech-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Experiment 2 used revised COPT lists, with items swapped between lists to reduce differences in difficulty across lists. In experiment 3, test–retest repeatability was assessed for stimuli presented in quiet, using 15 participants with sensorineural hearing loss. Results: After administration of a single practice list, no practice effects were evident. The critical difference between scores for two lists was about 2 words (out of 15) or 5 phonemes (out of 50). The mean estimated SNR required for 74% words correct was −0.56 dB, with a standard deviation across lists of 0.16 dB. For the participants with hearing loss tested in quiet, the critical difference between scores for two lists was about 3 words (out of 15) or 6 phonemes (out of 50).