VERBAL AUDITORY CLOSURE AND THE SPEECH-PERCEPTION IN NOISE (SPIN) TEST

Ability to utilize auditory contextual information to facilitate speech-recognition verbal auditory closure is postulated to be a specific factor or primary mental ability, separable from general intelligence or other mental functions. This paper proposes that measurement of verbal auditory closure provides useful clinical information. Because the Speech Perception in Noise (SPIN) Test allows separate scores-for understanding of sentences that contain contextual information and of those that do not, the SPIN Test provides a good measure of verbal auditory closure. Now that an authorized version of the revised SPIN Test is commercially available, it is appropriate to review published information about reported performance of different listener groups on this instrument and to propose additional research questions that deserve investigation.