Speak Up

Millions of U.S. men, up before draft examiners in World War I and II, had their hearing tested by one simple method. The tester stood them against a wall, backed away 20 feet, started speaking in a low conversational tone, walked toward them, asked them to indicate when they could hear what he was saying. Does this test--which the Army, the Navy and the Veterans Administration still use--prove anything? No, says Dr. Aram Glorig, director of aural rehabilitation at the Army Medical Center in Washington.

Dr. Glorig became suspicious of the test, made 173 experiments with it in a special "speech tunnel" with soundproofed walls and ceilings. He told a meeting of hearing specialists at the center last week that the hearing ability of the men tested varied widely even when the same tester used the same words to the same man, and did his best to keep his voice at the same pitch.

One reason the test is worthless : unlike Humpty Dumpty who shouted right in his friend's ear (see cut), testers instinctively lower their voices when they approach a subject. Other reasons: testers' voices vary; other sounds in usual testing rooms make a big difference but are ignored in figuring a man's hearing; because of the way the human ear works, the tester's voice does not sound significantly louder until he is within ten feet.

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