Tracking audiometry maps hearing thresholds but ignores response bias

Evidence

In the method of tracking, the subject influences the direction of change of the studied attribute of sound. The historical example of this method is Békésy audiometry, where the task of the subject is to press a button whenever hearing a sound (von Békésy, 1960). The level of the tone whose frequency is swept gradually decreases as long as the button is pressed and increases when it is released. The local average of the level function with frequency can be taken as an absolute hearing threshold of the subject. The method is prone to bias, since the tendency to produce false positive and negative answers is not taken into account. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 922

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the tracking method and its flagship example, Békésy audiometry.