A Varying Intensity Story Test for Simulated Hearing Loss

The use of a procedure that varies the intensity of critical portions of a story for purposes of quantifying the degree of pseudohypacusis was examined. Results indicated that this procedure can be used to identify normal hearing people who are asked to feign a hearing loss. It was found that, for most subjects, it was possible to determine that their true auditory thresholds were at least 30 dB below what they claimed as their voluntary (simulated) levels.