A modified speech tracking procedure as a communicative performance measure

A modified speech tracking procedure was investigated to determine the effects of controlling connected discourse materials and of specific prompting techniques on tracking rate and subjects' responses. In addition, comprehension was tested after subjects completed the tracking task. Two experiments were conducted with normally hearing subjects, one in which subjects tracked in an auditory plus noise condition and the second in which they tracked in a visual-alone condition. The results of these two experiments showed significant differences between tracking rates for controlled versus uncontrolled materials for both modalities, with higher tracking rates observed for the controlled materials. The use of specific prompting techniques reduced intertester variability in both modalities. Further, results indicated that comprehension ability and tracking skill are not perfectly related.