Closed-Set
Tasks
Description:
The
therapist presents a limited number of choices, such as pictures or word lists,
and the patient selects the correct one.
Example:
A child is
shown four pictures of different animals and asked to point to the one the
therapist names.
Advantages:
Easier for
patients, especially those with hearing loss or underdeveloped auditory skills.
A good
tool for initial evaluations and assessing children with limited receptive
vocabulary, such as the World Intelligibility by Picture Identification (WIPI)
test.
Considerations:
May not accurately reflect real-world speech recognition skills because the choices are restricted.
Open-Set
Tasks
Description:
The
patient is asked to repeat or identify spoken words or sentences without any
visual aids or a limited set of options.
Example:
Asking a
person to write down or say a sentence spoken out loud in noisy conditions.
Advantages:
A more
difficult and realistic assessment of a person's ability to understand speech
in real-world environments.
The use of
multiple talkers and unfamiliar environments can help with the generalization
of learned skills to new situations.
Considerations:
More challenging and less precise for identifying a change in hearing compared to open-set tests.
Summary
Table
|
Feature |
Closed-Set
Task |
Open-Set
Task |
|
Number
of Choices |
Limited,
predefined set |
Unlimited
possibilities |
|
Difficulty |
Easier,
less challenging |
More
difficult, more challenging |
|
Application |
Initial
evaluation, pediatric testing |
Assessing
real-world speech perception, cochlear implant outcomes |
|
Example |
Pointing
to a picture from a small set |
Repeating
a sentence in a noisy room |
