Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

6-2026

Document Type

Doctoral Capstone Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Audiology

Program

Audiology

Advisor

Barbara Weinstein, Ph.D.

Subject Categories

Disability Studies | Speech Pathology and Audiology

Keywords

virtual reality, speech-in-noise testing, audiology, counseling, ecological validity, patient counseling

Abstract

Despite the remarkable advances in hearing healthcare technology, the speech recognition tests used in routine clinical audiological assessment have remained essentially the same for decades.  Monosyllabic word recognition tests in quiet, such as the Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6 (NU-6; Tillman & Carhart, 1966), have served as the audiology field’s default measure of speech understanding.  Modern speech-in-noise (SIN) tests, such as the QuickSIN (Killion et al., 2004), have emerged, yet they remain auditory-only, leaving an unignorable gap between what clinical tests measure and how patients communicate in daily life.  The present study examined whether pairing a standard SIN test with a live-action, 360° virtual reality (VR) stimulus could meaningfully narrow this gap. Twenty-four normal-hearing adults completed a within-subjects protocol consisting of a traditional auditory-only QuickSIN and a VR-enhanced QuickSIN presented via a Meta Quest 3 head-mounted display.  Objective speech-in-noise performance did not differ significantly between conditions, while subjective ratings significantly favored the VR-enhanced condition for future testing.  The VR-enhanced condition was broadly tolerated, with no significant pre- to post-VR change on the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire.  An exploratory analysis suggested that individual variation in physiological responses to VR may impact performance under VR-enhanced testing.  Findings indicate that VR-enhanced speech-in-noise testing is feasible, broadly tolerated, and subjectively preferred, while also suggesting that individual VR tolerance may be a non-trivial moderator of audiovisual benefit in clinical assessment.

Download

Share

COinS