Test-retest reliability of Kannada time-compressed speech test and time-compressed monosyllables test

Objective: The study attempts to determine the test-retest reliability for time-compressed phonemically balanced (PB) words in Kannada and monosyllables across different compression ratios. Study design: The study was carried out on 30 normal hearing individuals, 15 males and 15 females. The PB words were time-compressed at 50%, 60% and 70% compression ratios and monosyllables were time-compressed at 50%, 60%, 70% and 80% compression ratios. The compressed material was administered three times (baseline, after 15 min break and after 1 week) at all the compression ratios for PB words and monosyllables. Results: The results of the study show that scores were higher for monosyllables at high compression ratios. The scores were more reliable at 60% compression ratio for both monosyllables and PB words. The study also shows that the reliability of the test does not vary across gender. Conclusion: The study recommends using 60% compression ratio for PB words and monosyllables while testing a clinical population.