Determining masking levels in an automated diagnostic hearing test

A computer-based, multimedia system for allowing a patient to quickly and conveniently test his own speech discrimination threshold without a sound isolation chamber and with minimal assistance from an operator, comprising:

• transducers, including an air conduction transducer and a bone conduction transducer;
• a hearing test device capable of producing tones, speech, and masking noise connected to the transducers;
• a computer connected to the hearing test device and storing an automated hearing test thereon, the automated hearing test configured to cause the computer to:
• determine a crossover level for a non-test ear of the patient;
• calculate a minimum masking level for the non-test ear based on the crossover and an air-bone gap for the non-test ear;
• calculate a maximum masking level for the non-test ear based on a masking interaural attenuation and an effective presentation level;
• determine a masking level to be used for the testing using one or more of the crossover level, the minimum masking level, and the maximum masking level;
• and
• implementing a hysteresis to prevent changes that are smaller than a predetermined amount from being made to the masking level.

A method of establishing masking levels in a computer-based automated hearing test, comprising:

• estimating an unmasked pure tone bone threshold at a given pure tone frequency;
• estimating an unmasked pure tone air threshold at the given pure tone frequency;
• determining a difference between the unmasked pure tone air threshold and the unmasked pure tone bone threshold;
• and
• determining a pure tone bone masking level only if a difference between the unmasked pure tone air threshold and the unmasked pure tone bone threshold is greater than a first predetermined level.

A method of establishing masking levels in a computer-based automated hearing test, comprising:

• obtaining a first pure tone threshold at a given pure tone frequency for a first ear being tested;
• estimating a first masking level based on the first pure tone threshold;
• obtaining a second pure tone threshold at the given pure tone frequency for the first ear being tested;
• determining whether the first masking level is correct using the second pure tone threshold;
• and
• obtaining a second masking level based on the second pure tone threshold if the first masking level is determined to be incorrect.

A method of establishing masking levels in a computer-based automated hearing test, comprising:

• determining a crossover level for a non-test ear;
• calculating a minimum masking level for the non-test ear based on the crossover and an air-bone gap for the non-test ear;
• calculating a maximum masking level for the non-test ear based on a masking interaural attenuation and an effective presentation level;
• and
• determining a masking level using one or more of the crossover level, the minimum masking level, and the maximum masking level;
• wherein the masking level is applied during a speech reception threshold test.