Twenty-four young adults with normal hearing, vision and balance completed the BKN-SIN Test under four conditions: Sitting versus standing with eyes open versus blindfolded. Subjects’ SNR-50 scores did not differ significantly among conditions; however, subjects rated listening as significantly easier when sitting with eyes closed than standing with eyes open. This normative research is the first of several inter-modality studies at our laboratory addressing effects of body position and balance on speech understanding.

Paper presented to the 6th Annual Symposium on Graduate Research and Scholarly Projects (GRASP) held at the Hughes Metropolitan Complex, Wichita State University, April 23, 2010.Research completed at the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, College of Health Professions