What is it?
The American Four Alternative Auditory Feature test (AFAAF) is the American dialect version of the original Four Alternative Auditory Feature test (FAAF) developed by Foster and Haggard (1987) in the UK. The AFAAF is a closed-set monosyllabic word recognition test designed to evaluate a listener’s speech recognition performance. It comprises 80 test words and 5 practice words. There are five pre-determined randomizations for 80 test words which minimize response sequence learning effects on repeated presentation of the test. In each test utterance, they key word is embedded in a carrier sentence: “Can you hear _____ clearly?” For each utterance, the test subject listens to the presentation and selects the word he or she hears from four displayed alternatives. The AFAAF can be administered in quiet or in the presence of masking noises. The scoring can produce percentage correct scores for initial consonants, final consonants, or whole words.
How do I get it?
Obtaining audio files for the AFAAF:
The audio files are in WAV format. The files include (1) the 80 test words and the 5 practice words; (2) modulated and unmodulated masking noises; and (3) calibration signals. Details of the audio files and the word lists for the 5 randomizations are provided in the downloadable PDF document: Test material manual.
Instructions for Purchasing Administration Software:
AFAAF administration and scoring software can be purchased from the AUSP Software Group at the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Memphis.
The AFAAF for Windows version 1.0 scoring/administration software is available for purchase for $50.
For test administration software to work properly the 90 audio files in the downloadable package at right need to be copied to the folder “AFAAFSP” in the AFAAF software directory after installation.
How to cite the AFAAF:
The AFAAF test words were selected by John Foster and Mark Haggard at the MRC-Institute of Hearing Research, United Kingdom. They also developed the original FAAF test. If you use the AFAAF in your research, please include the following references in the papers in which you publish your results.
Foster, J., & Haggard, M. (1987). The four alternative auditory features test (FAAF)-linguistic and psychometric properties of the material with normative data in noise. British Journal of Audiology, 21, 165-174.
Xu, J., & Cox, R.M. (2010). American Four Alternative Auditory Feature test: development and validation. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Auditory Society.
Xu, J., & Cox, R.M. (2014). Recording and Evaluation of an American Dialect Version of the Four Alternative Auditory Feature Test. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, 25 (8), 737-745.