The audiogram measures only detection thresholds, so it misses everyday speech-in-noise ability.

Evidence

We should recognize, however, that the audiogram is grossly limited in its ability to characterize how well a particular patient might understand speech in a noisy or complex situation. Because it can only characterize perceptual abilities at the detection threshold level, it is not a terribly useful tool for assessing perception at other levels. — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 115

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in models of hearing — a critique of threshold-only assessment that motivates suprathreshold perceptual models discussed later in the book.
• QUESTION: What specific deficits beyond the threshold would better assessment tools capture — loudness recruitment, temporal resolution, spectral processing?