[Performance-intensity function of mandarin monosyllable and sentence materials for normal-hearing subjects].

To analyze the monosyllabic and sentence lists of Mandarin speech test materials (MSTMs) which have been evaluated the equivalence of difficulty, and to establish the performance-intensity function (P-I function) for people with normal hearing. Forty subjects (the age-ranged from 18 to 25 years old) who speak Mandarin well in their daily lives with normal hearing participated in this study. Eight of them joined the pilot study, which aimed to identify an appropriate presentation level for the formal test. Thirty-two subjects participated in the formal speech perception test. The results were analyzed by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 11.0. Seven monosyllabic lists (50 words per list) and 15 sentence lists (50 key words per list) were used. The results showed P-I function of 3.1% per dB for monosyllabic Mandarin materials and 7.4% per dB for sentence Mandarin materials. The sound pressure level of speech corresponding to a 50% recognition score for monosyllabic lists was 30.1 dBSPL or 10.1 dBHL, and 23.1 dBSPL or 3.1 dBHL for sentence lists. The study established the P-I function of the Mandarin monosyllabic and sentence materials with equal difficulty, which provides the normative data for identifying the normal hearing in a clinical setting.