Significance of the Portable Automated Rapid Test (PART) platform in quiet and in noise

The Portable Automated Rapid Test (PART) platform consists of a consumer electronics tablet and head-phones with software for assessing auditory perception. One goal of PART is to expand our knowledge of the hearing profile of individuals. The standard PART battery includes psychophysical measures that span multiple auditory perceptual domains. To date, most of the psychophysical measures in PART have been validated in quiet laboratory settings. It is unknown whether or how ambient or external noise will impact threshold measures. Subjects completed the PART battery in quiet over headphones (65 dB SPL) and in the presence of external cafeteria noise through loudspeakers (59 dB SPL; consistent with literature on waiting area noise). In separate conditions, we mixed pink noise through the headphones as a means to potentially mitigate the impacts of external noise (50 dB SPL; maximum level that did not impact thresholds). Thresh-old measures were collected from 10 young listeners with normal hearing. Results indicate that neither the pink noise nor the cafeteria noise affected average thresholds on any of the tasks relative to the quiet condition. These data support the use of PART in relatively uncontrolled listening environments like clinic waiting rooms or at home.