An adaptive procedure for categorical loudness scaling

In this study, an adaptive procedure for categorical loudness scaling is introduced and evaluated. The procedure adjusts the presentation levels to the subject's individual auditory dynamic range without employing any premeasurement and presents levels in randomized order. The procedure has been named "Oldenburg ACALOS" (Oldenburg-Adaptive CAtegorical LOudness Scaling). It was evaluated using repeated measurements with ten subjects with normal hearing and ten subjects with sensorineural hearing impairment. The results,of this investigation revealed that the adaptive procedure provides greater reliability, while being more time efficient than a reference procedure that uses constant stimuli. (C) 2002 Acoustical Society of America.