Measurement of stop consonant identification using adaptive tracking procedures.

The purpose of this study was to establish the potential utility of adaptive tracking procedures, relative to the method of constant stimuli, when examining consonant identification in cafeteria noise or four-talker babble. Thresholds for consonant identification were comparable for the two methods, while psychometric function slopes derived from the two methods were statistically different. To obtain accurate slope estimates from adaptive procedures, the target percent correct and change in variability with signal-to-noise ratio should be considered carefully. However, adaptive procedures are accurate and more efficient than the method of constant stimuli when the purpose is to estimate phoneme identification threshold.